Time Warp
by murda981
Summary: Max always loved hearing the stories of Hawke. They were her family history after all. Little did she know that she was going to meet Hawkes friends. And have to find a way to get them back to their time. But there was 1 of them she wanted to keep w/ her.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a warm evening in Miami. Max walked across the parking lot towards her car with her bag of books slung over one shoulder. She opened her trunk to put her bag in and shifted her staff around so that the heavy books wouldn't be on top of it. She paused for a moment looking at Hawke's Key. It wasn't the most powerful staff she owned, or the least conspicuous, but something told her to bring it today. Every time she looked at it she would wonder briefly what the Champion of Kirkwall and her companions would think of the way the circle worked today. It had been 400 years since the Kirkwall circle had fallen and things were very different in the world. She had heard the stories of the Champion and her companions almost every night as a girl. They were after all part of her family history.

Suddenly Max felt something powerful not far from where she was; it felt as if someone was ripping a hole in the Veil. She grabbed her staff and pulled out her phone. She quickly hit the speed dial widget on her droid to call Kyle. The templar's help would likely be a very good idea judging from what she felt.

"Hello."

"Hey, it's Max. You need to come to Virginia Key. It feels like someone is tearing a hole in the Veil. I'm going to go check it out." Max said in a rush.

"Will you wait for me to get there if I say please?" Kyle asked hopelessly, already knowing the answer.

"Only if you get here 5 minutes ago." Max replied.

"Fine. Be careful. I will be there in 10," Kyle sighed in resignation.

"Well hurry up. If you take that long I will probably already have everything under control and there will be nothing left for you to do!" Max said jokingly before she hung up the phone.

Max made sure the phone was on silent so she could sneak up on who ever, or whatever, was doing this and looked at her feet. Flip flops really weren't the greatest shoe choice for this sort of thing but they would have to do. She headed toward where she could feel the disturbance coming from.

* * *

><p>Anders lay on the ground staring at the dying embers of his campfire. It had been 2 weeks since he had blown up the Chantry in Kirkwall. He still couldn't believe Hawke had let him live after that. He thought she would have killed him; felt she should have killed him. That would have been justice for the innocent lives lost in the blast. He wasn't sure if that thought was him or Justice, or both. Either way now he was wandering the countryside alone. Well as alone as he could be with Justice in his head. He felt crushing guilt over the innocent people who were killed in the Chantry, but something drastic had to be done. The Templar's had over stepped too many times, there were too many abuses to ignore, and it had to stop. It would stop.<p>

Anders felt Justice stir at these thoughts. They had both been twisted by merging all those years ago. Neither one of them had anticipated the effect that their merging in Anders' body would have. Justice wanted to help bring justice to the mages of Thedas and Anders didn't realize how his hate and anger would twist the spirit into Vengeance. As the spirit fed off of Anders' anger he also amplified it, which in turn then fed the spirit more. It was a horrible cycle.

Anders remembered the look on his companions faces when the Chantry blew. Shock. Anger. Disbelief. Betrayal. That was the worst. The look on Hawke's face, he had betrayed her, lied to her, and made her a part of this. He vaguely remembers Sebastian screaming for Anders to be killed, but that wasn't important. What was important was that look in Hawke's eyes. They had become close friends over the years. She had been an apostate all of her life, always hiding from the templars. She understood the plight of mages because she was one. They had bonded over that. Even when she got involved with the angry elf, they still remained friends.

He couldn't understand that. Hawke and Fenris. It seemed so odd, the mage and the mage hater. He was practically a feral animal half the time. But Anders trusted Hawke anyway. He trusted her to stand with the mages, and she did. She let him fight with her against the templars and they had won. Things in Thedas would never be the same.

Suddenly Anders was shocked from his reverie by the feeling of something tearing, the Veil. There was a blinding light from nowhere. Anders barely had time to grab his staff when the light subsided and he was standing on a beach. The trees were unlike any he had seen before. As he looked around he noticed that there were others there.

"MURDERER!" someone screamed as an arrow flew past Anders head.

"Now, now, I can't have you kill each other after all the effort I put into bringing all of you here" a deep voiced purred.

Anders looked toward the second voice and saw a mage in strange clothes. The only way he knew he was a mage was the staff he was holding. Anders looked around and realized that he wasn't the only one brought there. All of Hawke's companions were there. Aveline, Fenris, Varric, Isabela, Merrill, and Sebastian (although he was trapped in some kind of force field at the moment). The only one missing was Hawke. The man in the strange clothes was obviously a blood mage; there is no other way that he could have summoned them from anywhere.

Aveline was the first to address the blood mage. "Who are you? Why are we here?"

"And where is here?" Isabela added.

"All in due time, all in due time." The blood mage purred again. "For now if you wouldn't mind following me."

Then suddenly something went flying between the blood mage and the rest of the group. It was a woman! Just before she hit the ground a telekinetic burst was cast right behind her knocking her forward and onto her feet. She stood up and looked around, then, turning to the bloody mage she said "Really? A demon? Blood magic wasn't enough for you; you had to summon a demon too!"

* * *

><p>As Max made her way through the palm trees she saw a group of people near the beach. She got as close as she could without any one seeing her. It was a strange looking group, to say the least. There was one man standing a little ways away from the rest. He looked normal enough, in jeans and a t-shirt. The others were wearing some strange clothes. There were 2 mages, a human man and a female elf. The man was wearing what looked like traditional mage robes. There was a woman with red hair in full armor holding a sword and shield, a male elf with strange tattoos holding a large broadsword, another woman holding a set of daggers (and she looked like she would fit on Pirates of the Caribbean!). There were also 2 archers, one was a human man in very bright white armor, and the other was a male dwarf with a crossbow. This group seemed very familiar to her. She tried to think where she knew them from when the man in the bright armor screamed "Murderer!" and fired and arrow at the male mage! He missed. Barely.<p>

The man in the jeans then said, "Now, now, I can't have you kill each other after all the effort I put into bringing all of you here," in a low mocking voice.

Something clicked in Max's memory when he said this. Dwarf with a crossbow, elf warrior with strange tattoos, woman pirate with daggers….

_No Way!_ Max thought, _It's not possible!_

But her thought didn't get the chance to go any further than that as something, something big, grabbed her and spun her around. It then grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up so she was looking directly into the eyes of a pride demon.

_Oh shit._ She thought.

"Would you mind putting me down, my feet miss the ground" she said to the demon as she sent lightning coursing through the demon's arm.

The monster reacted by throwing her toward where the group was gathered. She thought fast and cast telekinetic burst right about where she would have landed to propel herself forward so that she landed on her feet.

She looked around and looked at the man she now realized had to be a blood mage and said "Really? A demon? Blood magic wasn't enough for you; you had to summon a demon too!"

The demon came bounding through the trees and attacked the group. They took their places like the well oiled machine they had become over the year of fighting together. Max was impressed; the stories didn't do them justice. She didn't have much time to admire it as the demon summoned corpses and shades. She focused on fighting them off when she noticed the blood mage inching himself away from the battle. He saw her watching him and bolted. Max took off after him, firing lightning bolts and fire balls to keep the corpses away from her.

The 2 mages ran through the trees firing spells at each other none of them really hitting their marks. Then Max lost sight of the blood mage. She stopped and heard a noise from behind her. She spun around staff up and saw Aveline.

"I saw you chasing him and thought you might need some back up" Aveline said.

"Thank you, I think he went that way."

Then they heard a noise, an engine roaring to life. Aveline looked confused, hearing a sound she didn't recognize.

"Shit." Max knew exactly what the noise meant and ran toward where it was coming from, Aveline close behind.

They came into the clearing just in time to see the blood mage speed off on a motorcycle. Max tried shooting one last lightning bolt but the blood mage was able to dodge it and get away.

"Fuck," Max swore as she watched the motorcycle speed off. She turned to Aveline, "We had better get back to the others and help with the demon."

"They have probably killed it by now," Aveline replied, "The battle was going our way when we left."

"Well then we had better get back before Sebastian kills Anders. I'm Max, by the way. And thanks again for the help."

"You're welcome. You remind me of a friend." Aveline eyed Max's staff, "How do you know who we are? We are clearly nowhere near Kirkwall."

"I will be more than happy to answer that but we should probably wait until we get back to the others. All of you are going to need to hear the answer to that." Max looked down, "Crap," she looked back at Aveline "Can you keep a look out for my shoes as we head back? It appears that I lost them."

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note:This is my first foray into fan fiction. I hope that you enjoy it! I think it will be a fun story to explore.<br>**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Anders stared at the woman who had just been flung into the middle of the group. He had never seen a mage do that before. She was wearing the same type of strange clothes that the blood mage was wearing; well the same type of pants but her shirt had no sleeves.

Next thing he knew all hell had broken loose. There was a pride demon attacking them and corpses and shades everywhere. The group did what had become natural over the years and fought back. Halfway through the battle he noticed the strange woman running into the trees after the blood mage. He saw Aveline notice as well and follow after her. Anders wanted to go too, he was very curious about this woman and the situation that had brought them all here. He was too busy however making sure his former companions didn't fall in the battle. He continued to cast healing spells and attacked when he could. The battle was going their way and was soon over. The group took a few moments to collect themselves. Anders noticed that Varric and Isabela had moved themselves between him and Sebastian.

"What is going on here?" Fenris asked.

"And where are Aveline and that girl?" Varric added.

"Right here," they heard Aveline call from across the clearing. Anders looked up and saw the 2 women walking toward them. This was the first chance Anders had had to get a really good look at this woman. She was beautiful. She had long, dark brown hair with bangs hanging into her eyes. She was carrying what he could only imagine must be shoes seeing as she was barefoot, but he had never seen shoes like that before. Sure enough as they reached the group she reached down and replaced the shoes on her feet. There was something familiar about her, like she reminded him of someone.

"This is Max." Aveline introduced the woman to the group.

"It is nice to meet you all," she smiled with amusement in her eyes. What did she find so funny?

"But we haven't been introduced to you yet," Fenris said, eyeing her warily. His eyes lingered on her staff. Anders looked at it as well. Maker! That's Hawke's Key! How does this woman have Hawke's staff?

"True, but I know who all of you are. Don't worry, I am no blood mage. And there is a very good reason that I have this staff," she said also noticing Fenris eyeing it.

"Who you are and your staff be damned! It is time for that murdering abomination to pay for his crimes!" Sebastian cried with an arrow nocked and aimed at Anders head. Anders just readied himself for the blow. He was willing to accept it; it would be justice for the innocent. He deserved it.

Before anyone else could react the woman, Max, cast telekinetic burst knocking Sebastian off his feet. The force of it caused him to drop his bow, which she immediately grabbed. "I think I will just hold on to this for a little bit."

"HOW DARE YOU!" Sebastian screamed, "Do you know what this creature is? What he has done? He is a murderer who—"

"Geez man, that was 600 years ago. Let it go." Max said calmly.

The whole group froze, even Sebastian, and stared at her. Even Varric was stunned in disbelief. 600 years. It wasn't possible.

* * *

><p>"I thought that might get your attention," Max said.<p>

Varric was the first of them to say anything. "600 years," he said in stunned disbelief.

"Give or take a decade or 2," Max replied smiling.

"That's not possible," Anders stated in disbelief.

"Well clearly it is possible, because it happened," Max responded, "Although I'm not sure how."

Max's phone started ringing and the Champions companions all looked around confused. She pulled it out of her pocket. It was Kyle, he must be nearby. She answered the phone and put it on speaker so the others wouldn't think she was talking to herself, although she wasn't sure that a disembodied voice would be much better.

"Hi, Kyle"

"Alright I'm here; send up a flare so I can find you."

Max watched as the looks of shock returned to everyone's faces. "'Kay," she said as she shot a small fireball into the air. "Did ya see it?"

"Yep be there in a minute."

"What sort of magic is that?" Merrill asked with a touch of awe in her voice. Max wondered if she was thinking about the Eluvian.

"It's not magic. It's technology, science. Most people these days don't even know magic exists anymore. But everyone believes in the Cell phone gods," Max said with a smile holding up the phone.

"Cell Phone Gods…I've never heard of them. Are they human gods?" Merrill asked.

Max laughed, "Not exactly, but they are very powerful."

"There you are!" Kyle came walking into the clearing. "Who are all these people? And what happened here?" he asked as he surveyed the fallen corpses and the body of the Pride demon.

"You missed all the fun! That's what happened," Max grinned wickedly at the templar. "I told you not to take too long. I see you came prepared though," she said eyeing the gun under his arm.

"Always do. Templar's motto: Be prepared!" he said patting the glock.

"I thought that was the boy scouts' motto." Max replied flatly, rolling her eyes.

"A templar!" Anders said gripping his staff. Max noticed that both he and Merrill had visibly tensed at the word.

"You can relax. Remember, it has been 600 years. Things have changed." Max replied.

The 2 mages eyed her doubtfully but relaxed, slightly.

"Uhhh, Max, what do you mean 600 years?" Kyle asked, with a confused look on his face.

"Ohh sorry, I guess introductions would be a good idea. Everyone this is Kyle Imhoff. Kyle, meet the companions of Marion Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall." Max said with a flourish as if displaying the others.

"You're kidding me right? Am I being Punk'd?" Kyle asked in disbelief.

"Punk'd?" Isabela asked, "Sounds kinky."

"Not really," Max responded, to Isabela's clear disappointment. "And no one has been Punk'd in years Kyle, except maybe Charlie Sheen," Max said grinning.

Kyle laughed while the others looked confused.

"Can we return to the matters at hand, please?" Fenris asked with some obvious annoyance at the situation. "Such as: where are we? Who are you? And how did you get that staff?"

"Well, as hopefully you have figured out, you aren't in Thedas anymore," Max replied.

"How very Dorothy Gale," Kyle joked.

Max rolled her eyes and continued, "As for where you are, you are in Miami. It is a pretty large city on the ocean. I am Maxine Jones. I recently moved to Miami to pursue my education and I am living at the Circle while I am here. Kyle here is a Templar, from Miami. He joined the order because his father was a mage and he wanted to do his part to help protect mages."

"Don't you mean protect the world from mages," Anders practically spat the words.

"Did we forget the part of the conversation where we established that it has been 600 years since you blew up the Kirkwall Chantry, and things have changed?" Max asked wryly. "Now do you want to know how it changes, or would you like me to give Sebastian his bow back?"

Anders hung his head, and Max felt bad for being harsh with him. The whole group was going through a lot. They had just been ripped from everything they knew, everything that was familiar to them and dumped in a strange place.

"Sorry," he said, "Please continue."

"Thank you," Max smiled at him. She felt a pang of guilt, he looked so sad. "To answer your last question, Fenris," she said holding Hawke's Key in front of her. She looked him in the eye and said "It is a family heirloom. But you already know that."

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: I chose 600 years because I am basing that the Dragon Age stories took place in the middle ages which were around 600 years ago, give or take a decade ;)<strong>

**Also, Hawke's Key can only be used by someone with Hawke's blood. I know that over that amount of time things may be 'watered down' so to speak, but I thought it would be good for Max to have something to prove her the claim that she was descended from Hawke.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Family Heirloom. Those 2 words hung in the air. Anders realized that that was who she reminded him of, Hawke. She had similar features. Her hair and eyes were different colors, dark brown hair and green eyes instead of the mahogany hair and blue eyes of Hawke. But her features were similar, and she had a similar sparkle in her eyes, like she was amused about something but not everyone else could appreciate the joke.

"Well this story just keeps getting better and better," Varric grinned, clearly excited about this turn of events.

"I don't understand. Why does it matter why she has Hawke's staff?" Merrill asked, confused.

"Because Hawke's Key can only be wielded by someone with the blood of Malcolm Hawke, someone descended from him," Fenris replies never taking his eyes off of Max.

Max grins, "You are correct sir. Which means that I am descended from Malcolm Hawke; and Marian Hawke. Oh, and Fenris."

"Ooooh Fenris and Hawke have babies! I can just see it now, Fenris trying to figure out how to change a diaper while the baby screams," Isabela laughed.

"Good one Rivaini!" chortled Varric. "But don't forget that Hawke will be there too, probably reacting the same way!"

"Very funny dwarf." Fenris glares equally at the pirate and the dwarf.

"Hey now, I happen to be living proof that they manage to get at least one child to adulthood without trauma. Well, not too much trauma any way," Max said, her voice sounded like it was dancing on the edge of laughter.

"I am beginning to like this girl!" Varric declares.

Anders found the exchange amusing as well.

"Yes, well as entertaining as this is perhaps we should move this to more comfortable surroundings," Kyle suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea, Kyle. Did you drive your suv?" Max replied.

"Yep."

"Alright then. How about Fenris, Varric, and Anders ride with me and Aveline, Merrill, Sebastian, and Isabela ride with you?" Max suggested.

"Sounds good to me, I will call Kay and get her to get us access to some of the extra rooms so they have a place to stay until we can figure out how to get them back to where they belong." At this Kyle pulled out one of those phones and walked toward the trees.

Max turned to face the group, "We are going to move the question and answer portion of our evening to a more hospitable location. That is if no one minds."

"Where are we going?" Merrill asked.

"There are extra apartments in the Circle Tower. We should be able to put all of you up in some of those." Max said.

Anders immediately tensed, he had spent half his life trying to escape the Circle, and now they are expecting him to go back! He felt Justice rage in his head.

"It will be the safest place for all of you while we try to figure out how to get you guys back to your own time. Everyone there is familiar with the stories. I know hearing the idea of staying in the circle may cause some of you some anxiety," Max looked at Anders and Merrill, "But the Circle here is not like the Circles were in your time."

Kyle came walking back putting the phone back in his pocket. "Are we ready?"

* * *

><p>Max was a little nervous about taking them back to the tower, but it really was the best place for them. She wondered how long it had been for them since the fall of the Kirkwall Circle. It seemed like it was pretty fresh in all of their minds, especially Sebastian. It almost seemed as if Anders wanted Sebastian to shoot him as well.<p>

_He probably sees it as justice for the innocent, _Max thought. _We need to return them to where they came from as quickly as possible. And in the same condition that they were when they got here._

As the group made their way through the trees they heard something moving toward them. This time Kyle was the first to react pulling out his gun and firing 3 shots in quick succession straight into the skeleton. At the sounds of the shots the rest of the group tensed and stared at him.

"We just couldn't get out of here without you shooting something could we?" Max asked looking at Kyle.

He grinned, "I couldn't let you have all the fun!"

Max sighed and rolled her eyes.

"What in the Maker's name was that?" Sebastian shouted.

"So your vocabulary does contain words other than the word murderer! I was starting to wonder." Max said grinning.

"This is a Sig Sauer P228" Kyle said as he lovingly gazed at his gun.

"Kyle, they don't know what that means anymore than I do." Max said. She turned to look at the others and said "It's a gun. It shoots bullets instead of arrows, and it shoots them much faster than any bow could."

"Clearly you haven't met Bianca," Varric said pulling the crossbow over his shoulder.

"No I haven't but I am familiar with the laws of physics, and magic, and it's true," Max replied. "Although I don't doubt that Bianca can deal out the damage," she added with a smile.

"And don't forget it!" Varric replied with a grin.

Max grinned back as the group made its way through the rest of the trees they came into the parking lot where both of the cars were parked. Max saw Kyle's red Jeep Grand Cherokee parked at an odd angle next to her light blue Civic hybrid. "Where did you learn to park? You were one of those kids who could never color inside the lines weren't you?" she said looking at his cockeyed park job.

"I was trying to get to you fast enough to keep you from getting killed!" he responded.

"Really? Or did you just not wanna miss the fun?"

Kyle grinned in response.

"What are those things?" Aveline asked,

Max noticed that the entire group was looking at the cars like they were aliens. She was starting to realize just how many of the things they took for granted every day that they were going to have to explain to them. "Those are cars. The little one is mine; it is a 4 door sedan. The big one is Kyle's and it is and S.U.V., which stands for Sport Utility Vehicle. And that is why 4 of you are going with him while only 3 of you are coming with me, his vehicle has more room." While explaining both Max and Kyle had pulled out their keys and unlocked their cars remotely. After a little jostling as to who sat where in each car, why the weapons had to go in the trunk, and explaining how to buckle and unbuckle seatbelts (and why the seatbelts were necessary), everyone was buckled in and ready to go.

Max put the key in the ignition and turned and the engine came to life. She grabbed a hair tie from around the gear shift and pulled her hair up in a loose bun and hit the button to roll the windows down, she loved driving around with the windows down. She looked at her companions; Anders had ended up getting the front seat while Varric and Fenris were in the back. They all looked a little uncomfortable, but over that they all also had varying expressions. Varric looked as if he was trying to take mental notes, for a story latter no doubt. Fenris looked anxious, as if he was expecting the car to attack him. Anders looked curious, as if he wanted to learn as much as he could about this world in the time he was here.

As she pulled the car out of the parking spot and hit the gas to move forward Anders turned his head towards her and said "I have never seen anyone do something like that before."

"Like what?" Max asked.

"Use a force spell to propel them self forward to keep from hitting the ground after being thrown in a battle. That takes some fast thinking."

"Well, darlin', stick with me. I'll show you all kinds of things you have never seen before" Max replied with a raised eyebrow and a big grin.

Anders smiled back at her. It was the first time she had seen him smile, and damn if he didn't look good. The sad, haunted look that had been in his eyes the whole time he had been there was gone, replaced for just a moment by a mischievous twinkle. Max felt her stomach jump at that look.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Anders couldn't believe the things they had here. These phones that allow you to talk to other people far away, these cars that move around without the need of a horse or some other animal to pull them. His mind wandered back to the battle. The way that Max had used the force spell to keep herself on her feet. "I have never seen anyone do something like that before," he said to her.

"Like what?" Max asked.

"Use a force spell to propel them self forward to keep from hitting the ground after being thrown in a battle. That takes some fast thinking."

"Well, darlin', stick with me. I'll show you all kinds of things you have never seen before" Max replied with a raised eyebrow, a big smile, and that amused twinkle in her eyes.

Anders couldn't help but smile back. Her smile was infectious. He felt relaxed for the first time in months, maybe years. "Ohh really, like what?" He hadn't thought this way about a woman in, Andraste's ass, has it really been that long? He had been so focused on the mage plight.

The car had just turned a corner when Max replied, "Like that," and she was pointing directly ahead of them.

Anders turned his head and looked forward. "Maker," he said under his breath. He had definitely never seen anything like that before. Those buildings were huge! And there were so many of them. He heard Varric swear behind him and Fenris said something in Tevinter, but he only barely registered them. It was so much to see.

"And that's not even the best view yet," Max said, the sound of amusement in her voice. Anders was sure that she had that smile on her face but he couldn't take his eyes off the view laying out in front of him. They were coming toward a bridge and as they reached it they could see more of the city. The buildings went as far as he could see. Lights shown in what he assumed were windows and it was as if the city was sparkling!

Anders couldn't take his eyes off the city as it unfolded around them. Then suddenly the car turned into a hole in one of the buildings.

"Where are we going?" he heard Fenris ask.

"This building is the Circle. We are pulling into the parking garage. We will park the car and then head upstairs to where all of you will be staying while you are here. Kay should have everything worked out by now," Max said.

"Who is Kay?" Varric asked.

"She is a good friend. You will meet her. Knowing her she will be waiting in one of the rooms for us," Max replied.

She maneuvered the car in between 2 others and they all got out. Max laughed as all 3 of them forgot to take off the belts they had holding them in place. She looked at the phone and touched it a few times. "Looks like she has gotten everything straightened out. She sent me the number of the room where she is. Let's head up." Max said.

"You can get messages with those things too?" Varric asked in disbelief.

"Ohh yeah. This thing practically holds my life. All of my contacts are in here, my schedule is in here. I have pictures and videos and games."

"No way!"

"Yep!"

They walked up to what looked like a door and Max pressed a circle in the wall. It lit up when she touched it. There was an arrow pointing up on it. Anders couldn't see how the door opened, he didn't see any hinges.

"Aren't we going to wait for the others?" Fenris asked.

"Nope, Kyle drives slower than my 85 year old grandmother. Although that really doesn't say a lot 'cause she drives pretty fast," Max laughed. "They will be here soon enough and Max got the same message I did from Kay on where to go. We can wait if you would like though."

"Uh, no. It's fine."

Max looked at Varric and Anders to see if either of them wanted to wait. They just shook their heads no.

Suddenly there was a ring of a bell and the doors slid apart from the middle to reveal a small room. Max walked into the room and looked back at the 3 men expectantly, "Come on, get in."

"In that tiny thing," Varric said, "Why?"

"I will explain how it works if you get in," she replied.

As they got in she pushed another circle that lit up when she touched it, this one had the number 17 on it. She went on to say that this box was something called an elevator, and it worked by using rope and pulleys to move the box up and down the building from floor to floor. It made it so they could build buildings taller because people didn't have to walk up all those stairs. The buttons, she called them, indicated what floor you wanted to go to. Anders could barely believe that all of this was done without magic.

There was a change in the movement of the elevator and suddenly the doors slid open again. They were definitely not in the same place where they had gotten on the thing. This was a hallway lined with doors, not a large open room full of cars. Max had said on the elevator that they were heading toward room 1709. As they got close to the door Anders heard a strange noise coming from inside the room.

"Fair warning," Max turned to look at them, "if we can hear the music out here it is going to be pretty loud when we open the door."

_That noise is supposed to be music?_

"That noise is supposed to be music?" Fenris asked.

Anders glared at the elf, he didn't like agreeing with him.

"600 years changes a lot," Max smiled, that amusement there again, in her eyes. Anders felt a little jump in his stomach when he saw that smile.

She reached to open the door and as it open sound burst forth. They walked through the door and they saw a woman across the room, gyrating was the only word Anders could think of to describe her movements. The woman had long blonde hair and she was wearing very short pants made of the same sort of material as Max's pants. He started to notice the words the woman was singing in the song,

_Come here Rude Boy, Boy _

_Can you get it up? _

_Come here Rude Boy, Boy _

_Is you big enough?_

_Take it, take it, Baby, Baby _

_Take it, Take it, Love me, Love me_

Anders thought the lyrics were certainly direct. This clearly wasn't a bard's epic tale. It sounded more like a drunken bar song. One of Isabela's drunken bar songs. Anders thought, not for the first time that night, that being here was going to be a strange experience.

* * *

><p>Max could here Rihanna's 'Rude Boy' through the door. This was going to be there first major experience with modern music and it hurt her heart a little. She liked the song, it was fun to dance to, but when one is coming from a world where bards still existed it was a bit much she thought. Not that the Nirvana she was listening to earlier would have been less strange to them.<p>

"Fair warning," Max turned to look at the 3 guys, "if we can hear the music out here it is going to be pretty loud when we open the door."

"That noise is supposed to be music?" Fenris asked, looking skeptical.

"600 years changes a lot," Max smiled.

She opened the door and the music burst out of the room. She looked at the 3 of them and they looked as if they wanted to cover their ears to muffle the sound. She walked into the apartment and saw Kay dancing across the room. She clearly thought it would take them longer to get there and she was enjoying herself. Max made her way toward the iHome that the music was coming from. All 4 of them were watching Kay as she continued to dance around the room, with her back to them. She suddenly turned around in her dancing and saw them all standing there. She jumped. Max started laughing and turned down the music to a much quieter level.

"How long have you been there?" Kay said accusingly.

"Long enough," Max said between laughs.

"Maxine! That is not funny! You scared the shit outta me!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't have had the music up so loud. You would have heard us come in."

Max gestured to the others and noticed that they all were looking rather amused at the situation. She had heard Varric and Anders laugh, and Fenris even had a small smirk on his face. _Some things are just universally funny_, she thought.

"Gentlemen, this is Makayla Hawley. She is also a templar."

"You can just call me Kay,"

"I have never known a mage to be friends with so many templars," Varric said. "Don't you have any mage friends?"

"Of course I do. And in all fairness, most of you experience with mages has been with apostates, who generally avoid templars as a rule. That is unnecessary these days as there is no such thing as apostates anymore." Max replied.

"No such thing as apostates!" Anders said with shock written on his face.

At that moment the door opened again and the rest of the group walked in, along with an extra man and woman. They were carrying several pizza boxes, along with an assortment of beer and soda.

"There you go Varric, some of my mage friends," Max smiled at the dwarf. "This is Kay's brother, Ethan and our other friend Olivia Warner. Mages, both of them!"

"So are we going to be properly introduced to everyone here? I mean they know who we are so it's only fair!" Olivia asked. Max didn't like the way she was eyeing Sebastian. She didn't think the red headed Aussie would manage to get very far with that one though.

Max went around the room presenting Hawke's companions. She then went on to explain that they were summoned here by a blood mage who managed to get away and she had no idea how he did it or how to get them back.

"Holy shit Max," Ethan looked overwhelmed. "We are going to have to get the First Enchanter involved in this."

"Ohh I am aware. We will take it to her in the morning. I figured that I would take some time tonight to tell them about how things have changed over the years," Max said indicating Hawke's friends.

"We are going to have to get them some different clothes. They are probably going to be here for at least a few days!" Kay said, "They can't stay in what they are in, they will draw way too much attention to themselves."

"I can fix that, at least for tomorrow," Olivia said.

"Why don't you and Kay go grab some clothes for them while I try to answer some questions for them." Max suggested.

"No problem. Save us some beer!" And with that Olivia and Kay each grabbed a piece of pizza and headed out the door.

Ethan had taken it upon himself to pass out paper plates and there was a stack of napkins in between the 2 stacks of boxes. "Everyone grab some pizza and we can get settled in the living room where it's more comfortable. If you aren't sure about what the different toppings are just ask me." He was trying to make everyone feel more comfortable. Ethan was very empathetic, he was thinking about how he would be feeling if he was suddenly ripped from everything he knew.

"What's pizza?"

"It's a type of food," Ethan said, "It is made of bread, tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings."

"It is delicious!" Max said over Ethan. "Just give it a try!"

* * *

><p><strong>Authors note: <strong>**I hope you enjoyed their experience with fun new things, elevators, Rihanna, pizza! I thought it would be fun to explore come of the things that would be new to them and how they would react differently to them****.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After everyone got settled in Max took a minute to collect her thoughts. "I don't want to give you too many details about what happens in your own time so I am just going to tell you how things are different now," she started. "I said earlier that most people no longer believe that magic even exists. Over the centuries science has moved to the forefront of society and in different parts of the world magic faded to the background. Those who could practice magic did little to stop this. They realized that if people didn't know about magic then those who could use magic would no longer be feared, and subsequently persecuted.

The Circle of Magi no longer acts as a place to corral mages but as a school and sanctuary for mages. The only time a mage is brought to a Circle without being given an option to say no is when they have no mages in their family to train them properly. In those instances it is only for a few months out of the year, and then they return to their families for the rest of the year. Children are no longer taken from their families. There are still instances where the family will abandon the child out of fear. In those cases the child is raised in the Circle until the age of 18, when they are free to chose to go wherever they chose. Children who have mages in their families can be trained by their family members or they may train in their nearest Circle. Most children in large cities train in the circle a few days a week. They work around their regular school schedule. They will train more frequently during school breaks. All children in this country, mage or not, are required to go to school from the age of 5 to 17 or 18.

The Templar order functions to protect mages from the rest of the world. They have maintained the duties of hunting abominations and maleficars, but as mages are free to choose whether they wish to live in the Circle or not there is no such thing as apostates anymore. Templar's also help to prevent the world from learning how real magic is. They work to help protect the secret of mages. Most Templars chose to join the order because someone they are close to, either a family member or a friend, is a mage. Kyle and Kay are perfect examples of this. Kyle's mother is a mage here in Miami, and you have met Kay's brother," Max smiled at Ethan.

"Mages and Templars work together to hunt demons, abominations, and maleficars. Most mages just want to live quiet lives, but there are those who hunger for power. You saw today that blood mages are still very real, and the rest of us work very hard to keep them from wreaking too much havoc. The Circles have adopted the philosophy that with great power, comes great responsibility. They try to teach mages that we have a responsibility to not abuse our gifts. Unfortunately not everyone agrees with that, but they are the minority and they are usually caught before they do too much damage."

"Questions, comments, concerns?" she asked, with a raised eyebrow. She wasn't sure what kind of response to expect.

"Blood magic still exists, though," Fenris pointed out.

"There will never be a system where it doesn't exist, unless that is you make every mage tranquil as soon as they show any sign of magic. Of course that won't work either because you will never be able to find **every** mage. Not to mention the ridiculousness of condemning an entire group for the actions of a few." Max replied.

"So does the right of tranquility still exist then?" Anders asked; there was a hint of anger in his voice.

"It does but it is only used when the mage asks for it. Some people can't handle the power, or they don't want the responsibility. We still have a harrowing too. That is also optional, unless you want to hold some type of position in the Circle. Then it is required."

At that moment the door burst open and Kay and Olivia came in carrying boxes of clothes. "There are 2 more boxes in the hall; would you bring them in Kyle?" Olivia called around the box she was carrying.

* * *

><p>Anders couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was everything that he had hoped for, fought for, blown up a Chantry for. He felt Justice's satisfaction as well. All of their efforts paid off in the end. Mages were free. It rankled Justice that mages had to hide though. Anders focused on the freedoms. Mages could marry, have families. Mage children were no longer ripped from their mothers arms and dragged off to the Circle.<p>

Then Fenris asked about blood mages. Of course he would focus on that. Then he heard Max mention making mages tranquil.

"So does the right of tranquility still exist then?" Anders asked feeling his anger rising.

"It does but it is only used when the mage asks for it. Some people can't handle the power, or they don't want the responsibility. We still have a harrowing too. That is also optional, unless you want to hold some type of position in the Circle. Then it is required." Max replied.

At that moment the door burst open and Kay and Olivia came in carrying boxes. "There are 2 more boxes in the hall; would you bring them in Kyle?" Olivia called around the box she was carrying. She smiled at him in a way that made Anders think that she was the kind of woman used to men doing what she wanted.

"Uh sure," he responded going out into the hall and coming back in with 2 large boxes.

The girls put the boxes on the floor in the center of the room. Olivia started pulling what looked like more of the strange clothes and tossing them into different piles at every ones feet, well everyone from Thedas anyway. Anders looked at what she was throwing in his direction. He had noticed that mages didn't seem to wear robes anymore. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, pants seemed kind of restrictive.

"Where did you get all this stuff Liv?" Max asked.

"There are storage units downstairs that hold all kinds of things. They are mostly donations to help mages who need it. Young mages whose families are less than accepting, mages that need to be relocated for one reason or another; that sort of thing. I figured that we would be able to find enough clothes there that would fit everyone," Olivia responded. "I figured we could divide things up by size and then they will have some options for tomorrow."

"That's sounds like a good idea, Liv, thanks."

"You're welcome!"

"There is no armor in here," Aveline said.

"I think you will be ok Aveline. We want to draw as little attention to all of you as possible so that no one gets any ideas about trying to make any changes to history." Max said. "I'm getting tired; I am going to head home in a bit."

"I already put notes by the phones in each of the apartments with copies of your number, and Kyle's in case they need anything. I was going to give each group tours of the different apartments and show them how things worked, like showers, lights and such. This one has 3 bedrooms so the girls will stay here and I have 2, 2 bedrooms set up down the hall," Kay explained.

"That's great Kay. Sounds like you have everything *YAWN* covered, excuse me," Max said through a yawn.

"If you want sis I can show the guys around their rooms while you help out the girls." Ethan suggested. "Max why don't you head home, you look dead on your feet."

"I have one more thing that I have to do first. Sebastian, would you step outside with me?" She asked gesturing toward the balcony.

"Certainly," he replied. He looked skeptical but his princely manners wouldn't let him say no.

"Thank you," she said as she stood and headed toward the door.

Anders felt anger, and maybe a little jealousy. What could she have to talk to him about?

"Well while everyone else is here why don't I show you how everything works so we don't have to repeat it too many times," Kay suggested.

Anders soon felt his head spinning a bit. Everything was relatively simple, almost too simple. Just flip a switch or push a button and everything was at your finger tips. To get hot water all you had to do was turn a knob. "I am never going to be able to tell this story, no one will believe this shit," Varric said at one point in the tour.

When they came back into the living room Anders saw that Sebastian was looking a little sulky and Max was sitting on the couch with her eyes closed. She opened them when everyone came into the room and smiled sleepily.

"I didn't want to leave without saying good bye first. Feel free to give me a call if you need anything," she told the group.

She hugged her friends good night and left. Anders felt a little sad when she left. She had been on his side and now he felt alone again. Ethan showed Fenris and Sebastian to one apartment and Anders and Varric had the other. They probably figured that Varric was the least likely to kill Anders in his sleep, which was probably true.

"Well, Blondie; now that it's just the 2 of us I gotta ask, why did you do it? I mean shit Blondie, what were you thinking? Blowing up the Chantry!"

"It's seems to have worked out in the long run," Anders replied gesturing to their surroundings.

"You realize that we are going to back to a war right?"

"If we ever get back. Blood magic was used to bring us here, which means blood magic will likely be necessary to send us back."

"We really are in one blighted mess now aren't we?" Varric said grudgingly, "And Hawke's not here to save us all this time."

"No but we do have one of her descendants, maybe that will be enough."

"I sure hope it is Blondie. This seems like a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here."

"Not enough vomit on the floor?"

"No, and I miss the smell of sour ale."

The 2 men made their ways to their bedrooms grinning. Anders was feeling better knowing that at least he could still joke with Varric. He had missed that.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Max got up early the next morning. She almost believed it was all a very strange dream; that is until she checked her phone and saw the e-mail from the First Enchanter "asking" her to come to the First Enchanter's office a.s.a.p. Max sighed. It needed to be done but it was going to make for a long morning. Max rolled out of bed and went through her morning routine. She pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, a tank top might be a little inappropriate for a meeting with the first enchanter. She was a fair and relatively laid back woman but Max thought that a t-shirt would still be better.

She quickly fed Audrey, her cat, and her 2 clown fish, Jay and Bob, and they headed out the door. As she rode the elevator she took a moment to think about the events of last night. She couldn't help but be excited about the opportunity to learn more about her family history. She was anxious to hear some of Varric's stories straight from the source. She had a feeling they would be more colorful than the stories that her mother told her as a girl.

She thought back on the conversation she had had with Sebastian. She hoped that he understood what she was going for. She had told him that any attempts on Anders' life would not be tolerated. She tried to be sympathetic to his feelings but also make it clear that this was not the place to act on those feelings. He seemed to understand but she wasn't sure how much he agreed with her. She hoped that he wouldn't be a problem.

Anders. She hoped that he wouldn't be a problem either. She had always wondered about him from the stories, but no more than she had wondered about Hawke or Fenris. It could be argued that the 3 of them had the most direct impact on her life. Hawke and Fenris were obvious, they were her ancestors. Anders it was more for the changes he sparked for mages. Some mages practically idolized him. But Max was always a little perplexed. She understood his reasons for taking drastic action, but she felt that houses of worship should be sacrosanct. It also seemed to her Knight Commander Meredith was teetering so close to the edge that it would have taken a much smaller act to push her over the edge.

Max was shaken from her revelry by the elevator doors opening to the offices. On this floor were the offices of the Senior Enchanters, the Knight Captain and Knight Lieutenants, the Knight Commander, and the First Enchanter. Max made her way down the hall to the First Enchanter's office.

"Hi Layla, I'm here to see First Enchanter Mara." Max told the First Enchanter's secretary.

"Hey Max, she told me to send you right in when you got here."

"Thanks Layla," Max smiled at the brunette mage. Layla always amused her. She was a very petite girl but she could lay most of the men in the building on their asses if she wanted to, mage or templar. And she could do it without magic if she so chose.

Max walked through the glass doors into the First Enchanter's office. First Enchanter Mara Lunsford was a small woman, much like her secretary, but she also packed quite a punch. But with her blonde curls and blue eyes, she was often underestimated. She was a quiet woman most of the time. She wanted her Circle to feel like home, like a family. She was always fair, but you did **not** want to cross her. She was looking out her windows across Biscayne Bay towards the ocean.

"First Enchanter," Max said, "You wanted to see me."

"Hi Max. Come in, sit down. I hear you had an eventful night," she said with a smile.

"That I did."

"Tell me about it, and our guests."

Max launched into the tale and when she was done the First Enchanter sat silently for a moment. "Well this is quite the undertaking we have before us. We will have to do a great deal of research to find a way to send them back. I will talk to the Knight Commander about tracking the blood mage down; he may be our best chance at sending them home. In the mean time we need to explore every avenue we can. If I remember you said you have a friend studying in Tevinter?"

"Yeah, an old friend from high school."

"See if they can help you, Tevinter has the best resources on understanding blood magic. I have some contacts of my own there that I will reach out to as well."

Max nodded. They were going to need all the help they could get.

"Have you seen any of the Champion's Companions this morning? Do you know how they are settling in?"

" No ma'am, I came here as soon as I got up. They were all in pretty decent spirits last night."

"Speaking of spirits, has Justice made and appearance?" The First Enchanter leaned forward; spirits were something that fascinated her.

"Not that I saw. Anders seemed pleasantly surprised at the freedoms that we enjoy now though."

"Well I think we have covered just about everything that we needed to cover. I am going to keep you and Kyle in charge of keeping them comfortable while they are here. After all they are friends of your family," Mara said with a smile.

Max smiled back, "I think I can handle that ma'am."

"I don't doubt that you can. Keep me up to date with any progress you make in your research and I will do the same. We need to get them home as quickly as possible."

"Yes, ma'am," Max said as she stood to leave.

"Good luck Max."

* * *

><p>Anders woke up and lay in bed for a while thinking about everything that had happened the night before. He could barely believe that it had really happened. He had seen some crazy things in his life but this was definitely up there, maybe even number 1. He let his mind wander over the events of the evening and he couldn't help but think of the woman who had literally been thrown into their lives. It was definitely an entrance worthy of Hawke herself, he thought with a wry smile.<p>

Hawke. The guilt came rushing back at the thought of her. She had been his friend, had helped him with every favor he had ever asked of her over the years and he let her down. He was still surprised she hadn't killed him. He deserved it. He vowed to himself that he would make it up to Hawke if he could. He also vowed that he would not make the same mistake with Max. He owed Hawke that much at least.

"Sodding new fangled contraptions!" Anders heard Varric's muffled oath through the door.

Anders got out of bed and grabbed a pair of pants, he thought he heard one of the girls call them jeans, and pulled them on. They weren't as bad as he thought they would be, but they were certainly more constricting than his robes. He went to see what Varric was swearing at. He walked into the hall and saw Varric in the kitchen trying to work the phone.

"What are you doing?" he asked, mildly amused as the frustration on the dwarf's face.

"Trying to figure out how to work this sodding thing. It doesn't seem to like me very much."

"Why don't I try and if we still can't get it to work then you can let Bianca try?" Anders replied with a grin.

"I like that plan Blondie, go for it. I was trying to contact Max on this sodding thing."

Anders tried to remember the directions Kay had gone through last night. You pick up the handle looking part and then punch in the numbers. Seemed easy enough. He punched in the numbers that were written next to Max's name on the piece of paper that had been left there for them. He heard ringing then Max's voice. He tried to talk to her but she just kept talking, she said something about leaving a message. Then there was a beep. He just stared at the phone.

"Hello? Hello Max?" Nothing.

He replaced the phone and turned to the dwarf. "I give up, grab Bianca."

The dwarf smiled and went toward his room. Just then there was a knock at the front door. Anders went to the door and opened it. He felt a thrill of excitement. It was Max.

"You called?" she asked with a smile, amusement twinkling in her eyes. "Well you or Varric. Although judging by the number of missed calls I have it was both of you." Kay, who was with her, laughed.

Anders gestured for them to come in. "It was both of us," he grinned.

Just then Varric came out of the other room carrying his crossbow. "Alright Blondie, Bianca is ready! Oh hi Max, Kay."

"Varric, what are you 3 planning on doing?" Max asked.

"We had a disagreement with that confounded contraption. I thought that maybe Bianca would be able to persuade it to cooperate with us." Varric replied with a smile.

"Well then I am glad I got here in time to save the phone," Max said with a smile.

"And ruin our fun," Anders added. Maker but there was something about her smile.

"Yeah well, I have some projects for you both today. Varric, Kay teaches a history class here and she thought you might like to help her."

"I was just starting to teach them about the Champion of Kirkwall and the fall of the Circle and I thought that your stories would be better than my rambling. I thought it would make things come more alive for the students."

"A captive audience? Sounds like fun!" Varric replied, "Does Bianca get to tag along?"

Kay hesitated, "Ummm, I guess."

"Then I am ready whenever you are my lady."

"Great! Let's go. See you later Max."

"Thanks Kay. Bye"

"What about me? You don't want me influencing the youth of today?" Anders asked with a smirk. "Or do you just want me all to yourself?"

Max raised an eyebrow and one corner of her mouth drew up into a sardonic half smile. "Actually my plans for the day involve you, and me," she paused, "and Merrill. Doing research."

"You are going to waste all this on research," Anders shook his head. "That is a crime madam."

"Well be that as it may, go put on a shirt so we can get going."

Anders bowed, "As you wish my lady." He turned and walked back to his room. He grabbed a plain black shirt from the pile. He also pulled on the pair of black boots that they had given him. He had actually surprised himself. He hadn't flirted that shamelessly with anyone in years. He was quite enjoying himself, and he enjoyed verbally sparring with her. There was definitely something different about her. He returned to the living room, "I am at your command."

"Somehow I doubt that," she replied, eyebrow raised again, laughter in her eyes. They left and headed down the hall to the apartment that the girls were in to pick up Merrill.

* * *

><p>After Max left the First Enchanter's office she noticed that she had some missed calls. One from Kay and the other from the apartment where Anders and Varric were. She called Kay back first. Kay had an idea to ask Varric to share some of his stories with her history students. Max thought it sounded like a good idea. Max was planning on having Anders and Merrill join her on research duty. She figured the 2 mages would be able to help sift through the material in the library, but she needed to pick up her laptop first. Since Kay lived on the same floor as max she invited Kay to meet her there and they would head to get Varric and Anders together.<p>

While Max was on the phone with Kay she got 2 more calls from Anders and Varric's room. She figured that she would just wait to see what they wanted when she got there. She ran into her apartment and grabbed her laptop bag and shoved her laptop into the bag. She slung it over her shoulder just as there was a knock at her door. She threw the phone into a pocket in the bag and opened the door.

"Hey"

"Hey, back. Hi Audrey!" Kay called into the apartment to Max's cat. "Thanks for being cool with me getting Varric to come to class."

"Audrey, be good," Max called over her shoulder as she closed the door. She turned to Kay "I don't have a problem with it. Just hope Varric agrees, although I think he will enjoy the excuse to listen to the sound of his own voice," she said with a smile.

Max heard her phone buzzing in the bag. It was still on silent from the meeting with First Enchanter Mara. She pulled it out just in time for it to go to voice mail. It was Varric and Anders again!

"Those guys have called me 4 times!"

"Maybe they need help with something."

"Yeah like how to flush the toilet," Max laughed.

They got off the elevator and walked toward the apartment where they guys were staying. Max knocked on the door. When the door answered Max was momentarily stunned. Anders opened the door. Shirtless. Goddamn. He had a great body under those robes. She gave herself a mental shake.

"You called?" she asked with a smile, she hoped that it would cover the heat she could feel in her cheeks. "Well you or Varric. Although judging by the number of missed calls I have it was both of you." Kay laughed.

Anders gestured for them to come in. "It was both of us," he grinned. His smile was bad enough when he was fully clothed but shirtless it was just plain cheating.

Just then Varric came out of the other room carrying his crossbow. "Alright Blondie, Bianca is ready! Oh hi Max, Kay."

"Varric, what are you 3 planning on doing?" Max asked, mildly concerned as to what they were planning on doing that required the crossbow.

"We had a disagreement with that confounded contraption. I thought that maybe Bianca would be able to persuade it to cooperate with us." Varric replied with a smile, indicating the phone.

"Well then I am glad I got here in time to save the phone," Max said with a smile.

"And ruin our fun," Anders added. There was that smile again. Why did he not have a shirt?

Max turned her attention on the dwarf in the hopes of regaining some semblance of her mental faculties. She told him about the history class and as she had expected he leapt at the chance. Varric and Kay were out the door in minutes leaving Max and Anders alone. Her heart was racing. Where the hell was that mans shirt?

"What about me? You don't want me influencing the youth of today?" Anders asked with a smirk. "Or do you just want me all to yourself?"

Max raised an eyebrow. Now he was just playing dirty. But he was also getting a little cocky and she just couldn't let that slide. "Actually my plans for the day involve you, and me," she paused, "and Merrill. Doing research."

"You are going to waste all this on research," Anders shook his head. "That is a crime madam."

_I swear to God that man is trying to kill me_, "Well, be that as it may, go put on a shirt so we can get going."

Anders bowed, "As you wish my lady," and he turned and left the room.

She let out a deep breath. She didn't know if her heart could handle much more of that. If she had realized that all that was under those robes she would have had very different dreams last night. She couldn't help but think about how his body would feel against hers. She had heard stories about Grey Warden stamina, she wondered how true they were.

And he had definitely been flirting with her. She thought, maybe. Oh shit, this could be dangerous. _I would almost rather face the blood mage again. Almost._ She smiled. She heard footsteps and she turned to see Anders returning, in a shirt, Thank God.

"I am at your command," he said.

"Somehow I doubt that," she replied with a smile as they left the apartment to go pick up Merrill.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

As the 3 mages made their way onto the elevator Anders couldn't help but be a little annoyed by Merrill's presence. He understood why it was a good idea to have her come. It would certainly be helpful to have a blood mage help with research into blood magic, but he had never thought very highly of Merrill. She was so simple, naïve.

As the 2 women chatted, Anders felt a tug in the back of his mind, _you are just jealous because you want to spend time alone with Max; that is why you don't want Merrill here._

It was the first time that he had heard from Justice since the Chantry. He had felt Justice's satisfaction the night before as Max had told them they ways that the Circle had changed. He had no response for Justice, however. He hated when the spirit was right.

"Oh, you have a cat! Can we meet her? Anders loves cats!" Merrill's exclamation shook Anders out of his revelry.

"The Warden Commander gave me a cat once, Ser Pounce-a-lot. But then the other wardens made me get rid of him."

"Ser Pounce-a-lot?" Max asked with her eyebrow raised, she was trying not to smile.

"You don't like the name?"

"Oh no, it's a fine name to give a cat, if you're a six year old girl," Max said trying no to laugh.

"He wouldn't tell me who had knighted Ser Pounce-a-lot," Merrill said, "Maybe you can find out!"

"I don't think I want to know," Max said shaking her head.

Anders was just about to say something about definitely not being a six year old girl when the elevator doors opened. They opened onto a large room with floor to ceiling windows on the far side looking out over the bay. It was a stunning view. Then he looked around the room, there were rows and rows of books. This library was bigger than the one at the Circle in Fereldan. There was a large desk near the elevator and there were 2 women behind it. There were more tables past that, some of them had strange looking picture frames sitting on them. The images on the screens changed. Anders had never seen anything like it.

"You 2 coming?" Max called.

Anders realized that both he and Merrill had been standing there gawking at their surroundings while Max had gone to talk to the 2 women behind the desk. One of them had come out from behind the desk and was waiting with Max.

"Follow me," she said.

She took the 3 of them to a private room. This room also had a view looking over the water. The room contained a couch and a few chairs all turned toward the center of the room where there was a low table. "Let me know if you need help finding anything." She eyed Anders as she walked out of the room.

"Well that was a bit of a strange look she gave Anders. Do you think she knows about Justice?" Merrill asked.

Max laughed, "I'm sure she knows about Justice, but that has nothing to do with the look she gave Anders. She thinks he's hhoott." Max put extra emphasis on the last word.

"Well then why didn't she offer to open the window to cool thing off in here?"

"Not hot in that way Merrill. It means that she finds him attractive."

"Ohh."

Anders wondered if Max thought he was hot, as she put it. Before he could pursue that thought though she started to discuss her plan.

"I figured we could go out into the stacks and bring a bunch of books back here. You guys can get started with those while I look for information on the internet." Max put her bag down on the table and pulled out a strange looking thing. It was folded in the middle like a book but there were no pages that Anders could see.

"What is the internet?" Merrill asked.

"And what is that?" Anders asked indicating the black thing she had taken out of her bag.

"This is my laptop computer, and it is how I access the internet. The internet is a network of interconnected computers. It contains more information than any library could ever contain. It is also a way to communicate quickly with people around the world. I am going to use it to send a message to a friend of mine who is studying in Tevinter. And then I am going to see if I can find anything helpful on the libraries electronic database."

"I still don't think I understand." Merrill said.

"That's ok; I can try to show you how it works later but for now let's see what we can find."

The three of them grabbed as many books as they could carry on anything the thought could help them, from summoning spells to the darkest blood magic. Anders was wary of letting Merrill look at the blood magic books but Max insisted that she would be the best person as neither of them had used blood magic. She thought that if they could figure out the ritual that had summoned them here then maybe they could find a way to send them back.

As Anders and Merrill worked their way through the books Max opened her laptop computer and started clicking away on the buttons. From what Anders saw the buttons were different letters and symbols that she could press in order to form words and sentences. He saw images pop up across the screen as she pushed different buttons.

"Ohh, the picture changes! How does it do that?"

"hmm, I'm not really sure how to describe how a computer works. Ohh I know! We can Google it!" Max replied.

"Google it?" Anders asked, he wasn't sure what googling was but it just didn't sound right.

"Yeah, Google is a search engine. You type in what you're looking for and it comes up with websites that match what you put in. Ahh here we go. Hmmm. I don't think that this definition is going to help. Basically a computer is a machine that is capable of complex calculations and functions. It is programmed to perform numerous tasks. Most people have computers in their homes, either a desktop or laptop. They can do everything from play music and store pictures and videos to allow you to surf the internet.

"Music like what we heard last night?" Anders asked, he had serious doubts about the taste in music in this time.

Max laughed, "Yeah if you want. There are lots of options, you can store music on the computer or you can listen to music online. Hold on, I'll show you."

Max clicked several of the buttons and suddenly music was coming out of the computer. It was very different than the music they had heard the night before.

"Ohh I love this song," Max said. She did something to that made the music get louder.

Anders definitely liked this music better. It was more melodic. He listened to the lyrics and they were much less explicit.

_Tremble for yourself, my man,  
>You know that you have seen this all before<br>Tremble Little Lion Man,  
>You'll never settle any of your scores<br>Your grace is wasted in your face,  
>Your boldness stands alone among the wreck<em><br>Learn from your mother or spend your days biting your own neck __

__But it was not your fault but mine  
>And it was your heart on the line<br>I really fucked it up this time  
>Didn't I, my dear?<br>Didn't I, my...__

Anders was surprised by the lyrics of this song. The definitely struck a chord with him.

When the song was over Max turned the volume back down while another song started. "I think that is enough playing for now. Maybe later we can play with the computer more, but we need to get to researching!"

Anders picked up a book and saw Merrill do the same. Max continued to click away on the computer. She had left the music playing softly in the background. Maker they had some amazing things in this time.

* * *

><p>Max found the amazement on the faces of the 2 other mages very entertaining as they entered the library. It was a fantastic library, she remembers having a very similar look on her face the first time she ever entered this library. She loved coming there, she would even study for her grad school classes here, even though they had nothing to do with magic.<p>

She had fun showing them how the computer worked. She liked playing music for them too. She used I heart Radio to play one of her favorite stations from home. She left the station playing in the background while they started on their research. She told them that if it became a distraction she would happily turn it off, but they seemed to enjoy it.

After a few hours of searching Max heard a loud growling noise and she realized that it was her stomach. Judging by the looks on their faces Anders and Merrill had heard the noise too. "I haven't eaten yet," Max said sheepishly.

"Maybe we should take a break and get something to eat," Anders suggested.

"That is an excellent idea. I have plenty of food in my apartment, we can just go there."

"Ohh yes, then we can meet your kitty!" Merrill said excitedly.

Max grinned, "Yep, you can. We can leave all the books here. I have reserved this room for the whole week so no one will come in and bother anything. And that way we can come back and pick up where we left off."

The 3 of them headed back towards the elevator and Max hit the button for her floor.

"What did you mean when you said that the woman at the library knew about Justice?" Anders asked suddenly.

Max was a little surprised by the question, it was a fair question it was just a little sudden. "Well one of the things that the Circle teaches mages is history. The story of the Champion of Kirkwall is considered an important part of mage history so every one learns about it. And about all of you. It was not my favorite part of class. Every teacher always felt that they had to put me on display as a descendant of the Champion. It was annoying."

"So everyone here knows about what happened in Kirkwall?" Anders asked.

"Yep, they don't know that you are **the** Anders or that she is **the** Merrill, but if they heard the names that is the first association that most of them would make. That is why Kay asked Varric to come with her to her class today. The accounts in the history books are likely not as colorful as Varric's," Max smiled.

"Do any of them start with 'No shit, there I was'? Because that is how Varric's stories start.' Merrill asked.

Max laughed, "None of the history books I have ever read start that way."

The elevator doors opened and Max lead them down the hall to her apartment. She opened the door and Audrey immediately came to the door to great them.

"Ohh, she is soo cute." Merrill smiled and tried to pet the grey cat. The cat walked away as she tried.

"Make your selves comfortable. I will make some sandwiches." Max said.

"Merrill you can't chase cats around, you have to wait for them to want to come to you," Anders said watching Merrill trying to get Audrey to let her pet her.

Max walked into the kitchen and pulled the roasted chicken out that she got from the store. She grabbed some tomatoes and cheese and other toppings. She stared cutting pieces of chicken off when she heard Anders voice.

"You have a lot of pictures, and they are very life-like. Did it cost a great deal to commission them?"

"What?" Max replied coming out into the living room. She saw Anders looking at the family photos that she had on one of her book shelves.

"Did it cost you a great deal? They look expensive."

"They are photos, not paintings. They didn't cost me much to have them printed. The ones I'm not in I probably took."

Anders looked at her in confusion. She pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket and clicked on the camera widget. She held it up towards Anders and took his picture. She then pulled the picture back up and showed it to him. "See, a photograph." She smiled.

"That's me! That is amazing!"

"Ohh, can I see!" Merrill asked excitedly.

"Sure," Max showed Merrill the screen of the phone so that she could see the image of the photo.

"Wow! That is amazing!"

"And that is without magic?" Anders asked skeptically.

"No magic. I can get the images printed onto paper and that is what is in the frames. Pictures of the people that mean the most to me. Images that I like to see every day." Max said with a smile. Her stomach complained again so she went to finish the sandwiches. She poured them each a glass of water, she wasn't sure what the other 2 would think of soda and since they still had more work to do she figured she would just stick with water.

As they ate Max told them about the people in the pictures, who they were, how old the photos were, that sort of thing. When they were done eating she put the plates and glasses in her dishwasher and re-joined them in the living room. Merrill had managed to get Audrey to allow her pets. Anders was holding a frame that had been lower on one of the bookshelves. It was a larger frame that Max had put 2 photos in, in opposite corners of the frame.

"Who are these children?" He asked.

Max looked at the pictures and smiled. The photo in the bottom corner was of a little girl with brown hair kissing a baby on the head, and the other photo was of 3 children, 2 girls (1 blonde, 1 brunette) and a brunette boy, sitting in front of some corn stalks tied together as fall decorations.

"Well in the top one that is me, my sister, and our cousin. The other picture is me and my sister. I stole these pictures from my mother. Funny enough, everyone in that picture is descended from Hawke!"

Anders smiled at the photos, but there was a sadness in his eyes. Max was just about to ask him if everything was ok when he cleared his throat.

"We should probably get back to work," he said carefully replacing the frame.

"Uhh, yeah. Come on Merrill."

The three of them returned to the library and continued with their research for the rest of the day. Max couldn't help but notice that Anders mood had changed and he seemed more melancholy than he had been. She would see if she could ask him about it later.

* * *

><p>Anders liked Max's apartment, it had a warm welcoming feeling. She had multiple bookshelves that were all filled. She also had pictures everywhere. He had never seen anything of that quality before. He asked her about them and when she told him about photographs and took one of him it was quite amazing. He enjoyed listening to her talk about the people in the images while they ate. She was so animated and clearly cared about all of the people in the pictures. It was beautiful the way her face lit up talking about the people she loved.<p>

As she cleaned up their dishes Anders took a closer look at one of the picture frames she hadn't talked about. There were 2 pictures, 1 with 2 small children and the other with 3 young children. They looked so happy. He asked Max about the pictures and when she told them that she was in each photograph he couldn't help but think of his own childhood. He remembered his mother. She was a warm woman who had been horrified to find out that her son was a mage.

Anders noticed that Max was looking at him with a look of concern in her eyes and he realized that his emotions must be showing on his face. He cleared his throat and suggested that they get back to work. She convinced Merrill to leave the cat alone and they returned to the library.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: The song played on Max's computer is Mumford and Son's "Little Lion Man". I highly recommend it if you haven't heard it as it is an awesome song!<strong>

**Also, thank you for reading!  
><strong>


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After a few more hours in the library they decided to call it a night. Max had e-mailed her friend in Tevinter asking for any information that she may be able to get. Max had trained with Sue in the Circle in Baltimore where she was from. Sue had gone to Tevinter to study old magic and Max had a strong feeling that Tevinter was going to be their best bet.

That night the whole group met again for dinner in the apartment that Aveline, Isabela and Merrill were sharing. Kay had made a large pot roast for the whole group for dinner. That woman loved having a large group of people to try to take care of. Max thought that was one of the reasons she loved being a Templar.

Kyle and Kay also update everyone on the investigation into finding the mage that summoned Hawke's companions to modern times. Apparently it had been made the highest priority for all templars in the tower. All available knights were assigned to the case and Knight Commander Gabriel had taken a personal interest in the investigation.

Max wasn't surprised that both the First Enchanter and the Knight Commander had taken a personal interest in the situation. These people had been a part of the end of Chantry control over Circles; this had eventually lead to the way of life that they all enjoyed now. Returning them to their rightful place needed to be a high priority.

When they were finished Max updated the group on the research efforts that they had made that day. Ethan and Liv volunteered to join the group in the library to help out with the research the next day. Max was happy to accept their offer. It turned out that Kyle had taken the time that day to show Aveline, Isabela, Fenris, and Sebastian around the tower that day. He took them to where they could get some practice in. They had been spotted by the Knight Captain and he wanted their help in training some of the newer templars.

Max tried to corner Anders to find out what had made him look so sad when they were in her apartment but she was intercepted by Merrill.

"Max, I have a question for you."

"What's up Merrill?"

"Ohh, well the ceiling and the sky mostly, and probably some birds….."

Max sighed, "What is your question Merrill?"

"When we were in your apartment I saw something in your kitchen and I was wondering about it. It was a picture of a man and a woman and it said something about her getting kidnapped and him dying but it all ends okay. How does that happen? Those things don't sound okay."

Max laughed, "That magnet is referring to my favorite movie 'The Princess Bride'. And it does end up okay."

"What's wrong Daisy? You look more confused than usual," Varric asked Merrill.

"She saw a magnet in my apartment and the picture on it confused her. It might be just your kind of story Varric. The magnet has a picture of the 2 main characters and it says 'She gets kidnapped. He gets killed. But it all ends up okay.'"

"I love that movie!" Liv piped in. "Why don't we watch it! Then Merrill will understand."

"I think that sounds like a great idea!"

Max quickly ran to her apartment to get her copy of the DVD. When she got back Kay and Liv had managed to organize everyone in front of the television to get ready to watch the movie. Max saw that there was a spot left for her on the couch. Her heart flipped a little when she noticed that it was next to Anders. She put the movie in and it started. The first time Wesley appeared on screen Varric exclaimed from the other side of Max "Holy Shit! It's Blondie! Hahaha." Anders just rolled his eyes while Max giggled.

Max could hear Varric make mental notes throughout the movie; 'Screaming eels, Dread Pirate Isabela, Pit of Despair. Mostly dead all day. To the pain. This is some great shit.' Max couldn't help but chuckle. She knew he would enjoy this story. It seemed as if they all were. Varric also seemed to enjoy torturing Anders by pointing out that he looked like Wesley. 'Look he even has the same hair style as you do Blondie!' Max did hear Anders laugh a few times. He had a nice laugh. Merrill was happy at the end 'It did all end up okay!' Max thought she saw both Aveline and Isabela tear up a bit at the end. Even Sebastian seemed to enjoy it; Max thought that she heard him talk about how he understood Inigo's desire to avenge his family.

* * *

><p>The next week went on in about the same way. The mages would spend most of their days in the library trying to find a way to return Hawke's companions to where they came from. Some of the days Max wouldn't join them in the library. On those days Anders found it harder to focus and time seemed to drag on. He understood her desire to make sure that all of them had things to keep them from getting anxious while they were here, and she also had classes outside of the Circle but…he missed her. He hated thinking it. He had no right to miss her. He was going to have to leave, to return to his own time, and then they would never see each other again.<p>

He enjoyed the time they did spend together. The two of them would usually end up talking in the evenings after dinner. They all usually had dinner together, the way they had the first few nights. As the meal was winding down they would all split off into smaller groups and inevitably Max and Anders would end up talking. He looked forward to the time getting to know her, getting to hear about her life, her childhood in Baltimore, the training that she received at the Circle there; her family and friends; those who knew what she was and those who didn't. She mentioned a movie about the city; it had a strange name 'Hairspray'. Anders wasn't sure what hairspray was but she said the movie captured the essence of the city well.

He also enjoyed hearing about her interests outside of magic. There was one night where he and Fenris listened to her talk about the education she had. That she had gone to school part time while working her way through school, so she was older than most of her classmates. That she was in Miami working on her Master's Degree in Fisheries Science. The look on Fenris' face had been priceless when she said she was studying fish. He had been so proud that his descendents had the opportunity to become highly educated but the fact that one of them would chose to study fish annoyed him!

She would ask a lot of questions too. She wanted to know about what his life had been like in the Circle, before the Circle, with the Wardens, and in Kirkwall. She wanted to know about all of his escape attempts. She wanted to know the things that weren't in the history books, the things that weren't in Varric's stories. She wanted to know about Justice. What he was like, why he wanted to stay in the mortal realm when his first host body died.

And all the while the two of them flirted shamelessly. She challenged him and took great joy when she threw him off his guard. Of course he was able to return the favor on more than one occasion. But they were both careful not to take it too far. Though it wasn't easy. She was beautiful. The way her eyes sparkled with laughter, the way her hair fell into her face. Maker he wanted to run his finger through her long, silky hair. And it didn't help that she wore those tank tops and jeans that hugged every one of her curves and showed off her ample knew how it was going to end. In the past Anders would have pursued it anyway, but things had changed, he had changed and he took relationships more seriously than he had when he was younger. And she clearly took all her relationships seriously. She was loyal to her friends and it was clear that she would go to the ends of the earth for those she loved.

Then one night about a week after they had arrived there, everyone was getting ready for dinner but Max wasn't there.

"Hey Kyle, where is Max?" Anders asked the templar.

"She is at the airport. Her best friend from home and her husband are coming into town to visit for a few days and their flight comes in tonight. They will be crashing at her place while they are here. So she won't be by tonight." Kyle answered.

"Crashing?"

"Uhh, yeah, staying at her place."

"Ohh, ok." Anders was disappointed. She had spent the day with Fenris and Aveline so he hadn't gotten to see her at all that day.

The group broke up more quickly than usual that night. Varric had invited Isabela and Merrill to their rooms to play diamondback. The four of them sat down to play and it was almost like old times, if you didn't look around the room that is.

"So Anders, are you going to show Max that electricity thing you can do? I'm sure she would really like it," Isabela asked with a smirk.

"Shit Rivaini, I have been happily trying to forget that I know that about you two and you are not helping," Varric said.

"Sorry Varric, but come on. The two of them dance around it but the tension is so thick I could cut with my daggers," Isabela replied.

"She does have a point Blondie, you two need to get it over with, you're driving everyone crazy."

"Nothing is going to happen. Let it go," Anders said with annoyance in his voice.

"Why not? It's clear to everyone that the two of you both want it to. Just do it," Isabela purred.

"Do what? I missed something again." Merrill asked.

"No Kitten, we were just talking about how Anders wants to explore Max's Deep Roads," Isabela purred, smirking again.

"Max has Deep Roads? But she's not a dwarf," Merrill asked, confused.

"Take a second Daisy, it will come to you," Varric grinned.

"Ohh, you're talking about something dirty again aren't you!" Merrill exclaimed.

"That's right Kitten, we are talking about how Anders wants to do dirty things with our friend Max," Isabela said.

"Awww, they would be so cute! They both like cats!"

"It's not going to happen, so just leave it be," Anders snapped.

"Calm down Blondie," Varric said warily.

"If he would just let her Grey his Warden then maybe he would be more relaxed," Isabela said.

Anders just sighed. "I'm going to bed," he said getting up from the table.

"Spoil sport," Isabela pouted.

Anders was frustrated, they didn't understand. He wanted her, in every way possible, Maker he wanted her. He had been with his fair share of women; both in and out of the Circle, but none of them were like her. He felt comfortable with her in a way that he had never felt with anyone before. But he couldn't pursue it, not when he was going to just be sent back to where he came from. It was already going to hurt leaving her; he didn't think he could do it if he 'explored her Deep Roads', as Isabela had said. He had to give it to her, no one could come up with an innuendo the way Isabela could. For a fleeting second the thought of staying here passed through Anders' mind. He squashed it down as quickly as it came though. Stay here? And do what? This wasn't his world, and there was Justice. Anders didn't know what injustices in this time Justice would demand his attention for. No. It wasn't a possibility. Even though there really wasn't anything left for him in Thedas...

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: The Princess Bride is an awesome movie, watch it! <strong>

** Story related- I think that Cary Elwes in that movie does look alot like Anders! I also think that Varric would totally love that story and steal liberally from it if he could pull it off!  
><strong>


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Max waited anxiously at the airport for Maryjane and Chris. She was excited to see her friends, to have more of a piece of home here with her, even if it was only for a little bit. She and MJ had been friends since they were 14. They had become friends in high school and they had grown to be family over the years. MJ and Chris had two little boys who called Max their aunt. The boys were staying in Baltimore with Chris' aunt and uncle while they were in Miami.

Max waved as she saw her two friends walking towards her. Max hugged both of them; it was great to see them both. Chris had just returned to the states from a tour of duty overseas and this was a nice getaway for the two of them. Max had made arrangements for them to have a nice dinner at a very nice restaurant while they were in town. Tonight they were just going to hang out in her apartment and catch up though.

"How was your flight?"

"It was fine. How are things going with your time warp friends?" MJ replied.

"As well as they can be. I will tell you the details in the car."

They grabbed their bags and headed to the car. Once safely away from prying ears Max felt comfortable enough to fill them in. Neither of them were mages. If it weren't for her they wouldn't even know that mages existed. They took it all in stride though. MJ had known about Max for years. Max had confided in some of her friends while they were in high school and even though she wasn't as close to some of them anymore she knew they all had kept her secret. Max told Chris after he and MJ got married. She had only met him once before they got married; they were living in Virginia at the time while Max was still in Baltimore. When they moved back to Baltimore she told Chris; MJ had respected that it was her secret but Max didn't want her to have to keep a secret from her husband. And if MJ trusted him then so did she. MJ and Chris had been married for ten years now and Max considered Chris a good friend, he had earned it over the years.

"The Templar's thought they may have had a lead on the blood mage that summoned them here but they hit a wall. We have made a little progress on what ritual he may have used. The Templars brought back some interesting artifacts from the site. Sue has been doing some research in Tevinter for me. They have far more extensive books on blood magic there than anything we have here," Max told them.

"How do they all seem to be doing? It can't be easy on them being here," Maryjane asked.

"They are all holding up pretty well. They are used to crazy. And we are doing the best that we can to keep them entertained. Tomorrow should be particularly fun, Kyle's cousin has a pretty nice yacht and he has invited us to go out on it. I thought the three of us could go, Isabela practically peed herself she was so excited about the possibility of being on a boat again, Fenris, Merrill, and Anders are all coming as well; along with Olivia, Ethan and Kyle."

"Shit, that must be a big yacht!" Chris said, "That's nine people."

"It will be eleven, Kyle's cousin and his friend will be there too," Max said, "And it is a big yacht, and a very nice one!"

They reached the Circle and chatted on the elevator about MJ and Chris' two boys. When they reached Max's apartment they caught up on other things; how Chris felt being home, how MJ's job was going, how Max was doing in grad school, everyday life. Until eventually the conversation came back to the time warp friends as MJ had called them.

"So we are going to get to meet them tomorrow?" Chris asked.

"Yep," Max replied. "Some of them will be on the boat."

"So we will get to meet Anders?" MJ asked, hinting at things Max wished she wouldn't.

"Yes. In fact we should all probably get some rest. We are going to have to get up earlyish to head out on the boat. Goodnight guys, see you in the morning." Max excused herself and started getting ready for bed.

She loved MJ like a sister but sometimes she wished her friend didn't know her so well. She had picked up on the fact that she talked more about Anders than any of the others in their conversations. That she talked too much about the clever things he said, or the times she caught him off his guard. Max was terrified of the direction things were moving but she couldn't help herself. She enjoyed being around him. He was smart, quick witted, and sarcastic, and God what his smirk did to her stomach, and other parts of her body. But she couldn't let anything happen. It had probably already gone too far. She hadn't seen him that day and she missed him already. But he would have to go back to his own time eventually. They had all asked her how she was so sure that they would find a way to get them home. She told them the truth; it was in the history books. There was information out there on what happened to all of them after the fall of the Kirkwall Chantry. She didn't tell any of them what that information was, well except Fenris, who only knew that he and Hawke had children eventually. But she also hadn't told any of them that there were no accounts of what had happened to one of them, that she would keep to herself. She couldn't go down that road.

The next morning they were up and ready to go. They met Kyle and the others in the parking garage. Kyle and his cousin were going to drive everyone to the marina. Olivia had managed to get bathing suits for Isabela, Fenris, Anders and Merrill. They loaded everything up into the SUV's and headed out.

"I still don't understand why we need to have these bathing suits on. When I had my ship and we wanted to swim we would just strip to our small clothes, or just take off everything," Isabela said as they were unloading the cars when they reached the marina.

"I was under the impression that you have the same opinion on clothing," Fenris replied dryly.

"Good point," Isabela responded with a grin.

"I like them already," Chris declared.

"I never doubted," Max replied with a smile.

They got everything loaded onto the yacht and headed out. They were going to the coral reefs. Kyle's cousin had brought some scuba equipment for those who were certified and snorkels for those who weren't.

"What are those things? They are strange looking," Merrill asked indicating the dive equipment.

"They are things to help you move better in the water. There are goggles to see, flippers to help you swim better, and snorkels to help you breathe. And then there are SCUBA tanks for those who are certified. They allow you to breathe underwater for long periods of time," Max explained.

"SCUBA?" Anders asked.

"It's an acronym. It stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus. The tanks hold oxygen and you can breathe through the mouth piece attached to the tanks," Max said. "Those of us who are certified are going to dive on the reefs and the rest of you can snorkel."

"And does snorkel stand for anything?" Anders asked.

"Yep, loser who doesn't know how to SCUBA," Max grinned at him.

"Hey! Not cool," Maryjane said grinning.

"It's ok honey, we will find a way to save you from being a loser who doesn't know how to SCUBA when we get home," Chris grinned at his wife. She playfully smacked him on the arm.

The boat slowed and Kyle's cousin, followed closely by Isabela who had been peppering him with questions about the boat and how to operate it, came out the cabin. Kyle had already dropped the anchor and they started to organize the equipment. Olivia had volunteered to give a quick snorkel lesson as she had done it before but indicated that once it was done she was going to return to the boat to lay out. Max suspected that she was also interested in Kyle's cousin's friend who was also going to stay on the boat while the others were on the reef. The guys all started to take off their shirts to get ready to get into the water. Max was checking the tanks she was going to be using when she looked up and realized that Anders had taken his shirt off. She thought she was going to pass out and then she realized that she had stopped breathing. God damn it! It was unfair of him to look that good without a shirt on. _Well two can play at that game_, she thought. She had a slight advantage, she had seen him without his shirt before, he hadn't seen her in her bathing suit. She pulled her tank top over her head and took off her jeans. She was wearing a new bikini that she had just gotten a few weeks before. It was black with streaks of peacock green and it flattered all her curves.

"Andraste's ass woman! Where are your clothes?" Anders exclaimed. His eyes almost looked like they were going to fall out of his head.

Max smiled, "What? This is perfectly normal swimming attire," she said gesturing to the other women on the boat. The only one not wearing a bikini was Merrill; she was more modest in a one piece suit.

"Oh, well, carry on then," Anders said trying to regain his composure.

Max couldn't help but laugh, turnabout is fair play!

* * *

><p>Everyone was laughing and joking as they loaded everything onto the boat. Anders liked Max's friends, Chris had a great sense of humor and a very animated style of speaking and Maryjane was a good balance to him, she was calmer but took great joy in her husband's animated nature, she was quick witted in her own right.<p>

"What are those things? They are strange looking," Merrill asked indicating the strange equipment they had brought on board. Anders had been wondering what the masks and strange looking shoes were as well.

"They are things to help you move better in the water. There are goggles to see, flippers to help you swim better, and snorkels to help you breathe. And then there are SCUBA tanks for those who are certified. They allow you to breathe underwater for long periods of time," Max explained.

"SCUBA?" Anders asked wondering at the strange word.

"It's an acronym. It stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus. The tanks hold oxygen and you can breathe through the mouth piece attached to the tanks," Max said. "Those of us who are certified are going to dive on the reefs and the rest of you can snorkel."

"And does snorkel stand for anything?" Anders asked, he thought snorkel was an even stranger word that scuba.

"Yep, loser who doesn't know how to SCUBA," Max grinned at him with the laughter in her eyes that made his stomach flip.

"Hey! Not cool," Maryjane said grinning.

"It's ok honey, we will find a way to save you from being a loser who doesn't know how to SCUBA when we get home," Chris grinned at his wife. She playfully smacked him on the arm.

The boat was slowing and everyone was getting ready to get into the water. Isabela had been harassing Kyle's cousin about his boat the whole time they were here. The pirate did seem to be enjoying being on the water again but she wanted to know how this modern boat worked without sails. Anders suspected that the man also enjoyed the attention. Anders remembered that Kyle had told them that they took their shirts off and would swim in the board shorts he had called them. They were like loose short pants. So he removed his shirt and then started looking at the mask that Kyle had handed him. Apparently the contraption on the front allowed you to keep looking in the water and still breathe. This would be interesting.

Anders looked up and saw Max removing her jeans; she had already removed her shirt. She was standing there in her small clothes!

"Andraste's ass woman! Where are your clothes!" Anders exclaimed.

Max smiled, "What? This is perfectly normal swimming attire," she said gesturing to the other women on the boat. The only one not wearing the same kind of garments was Merrill; she was in something that covered more but still looked like under clothes.

"Oh, well, carry on then," Anders said trying to regain his composure. Makers Balls, he had thought about what Max looked like under her clothes but he had never imagined that he would see it in such a public setting. Although truth be told he truly thought he would never see it. He already knew she had great curves, he was well aware that the clothes she wore normally hugged them all, but to see so little left to the imagination made it more difficult for Anders to control himself. Maker the things he wanted to do to her!

"Put your eyes back in your head mage," Anders heard Fenris growl in his ear.

"Relax, looking is all I will ever do." Anders replied glaring back.

"That had better be all you ever do, if you do anything to hurt her I will kill you." Fenris glared.

"Hypocrite, protecting a mage now?" Anders spat.

"What the hell is going on over here?" Max exclaimed.

"Nothing," both men replied still glaring daggers at each other.

"Bullshit. Whatever the fuck crawled down your shorts and died you had both better get over it because it will put a serious damper on my day if you two kill each other," Max stated with her fists on her hips. The words were light but the tone implied that she was completely serious.

The two men grumbled acknowledgements and moved away from each other. The group broke up, Max, Kyle, Chris and Kyle's cousin put on the scuba gear and jumped feet first into the water. A short while after them the rest of the group jumped into the water and after a brief snorkel lesson from Olivia they were left to their own devices. Anders enjoyed the scene below; the brightly colored fish swimming around the corals were unlike anything he had ever seen before. He could hardly believe what Max had told them about the rocky looking structures and that they were actually very small animals. She had been very adamant that no one touch the rocks because it would kill the fragile animals instantly.

He saw her swimming around the reef with Chris. At one point she was swimming facing the surface. She saw him and waved, he waved back. She moved so effortlessly, so gracefully, through the water. Just then he realized that someone was next to him. He looked over and realized that it was MJ. She waved at Max, who in turn waved back and got Chris' attention to wave to his wife. After watching the fish, and Max, for a while longer Anders decided to return to the boat. When he got there most of the other snorkelers had already returned. Isabela was regaling the others with tales of her life on the sea. Anders chose to sit away from the others and looked out across the ocean. At least that view was the same.

"You really like her don't you?" Anders heard a voice next to him. He looked and saw MJ.

"What?" Anders asked, feigning confusion.

"Don't play dumb, I don't know you very well but I do know you aren't stupid. Foolish maybe, but not stupid."

"Are you going to tell me not to hurt her? Cause Fenris already covered that today," Anders asked bitterly.

"Nope. I know her and the damage is already done, and I don't think that there is anything that you could have done to stop it, short of being mute," she smiled.

Anders wasn't sure what she meant by that. 'The damage was already done'; he hadn't done anything to her.

"So did you really voluntarily take a spirit into your body?" she asked.

"Justice, yes. I thought I would be helping a friend. It didn't really work out the way either of us thought that it would."

"Well it sounds like your heart was in the right place at least. It can be hard to see the consequences to all of our actions; you just have to try to do the best you can."

Just then two head popped up out of the water, Anders realized that it was Max and Chris returning from their dive. They swam over to the boat and removed their masks and flippers and climbed back onto the boat.

"I'm starving! I could eat an elephant!" Max exclaimed.

"Babe, it was so beautiful down there, you really need to learn how to SCUBA so next time we can dive together!" Chris said as he kissed his wife.

"What is an elephant?" Anders asked Max.

"A very large animal. Almost as large as a dragon. And I am so hungry I could eat a whole one," she replied making her way to the coolers that contained the food they had brought.

Kyle and his cousin returned shortly after that and they prepared the boat to leave. As they made the return trip Anders couldn't help but let his mind wander back to what MJ had said. What damage had been done?

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: There is an excellent image of Anders with no shirt on deviantart. http: louvette .deviantart. com/#/ d2xr4l5 remove the spaces. The artist also have several other fantastic images from DAO and DA2, I recommend checking them out! I take no credit for the image, I am not nearly that talented!  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When everyone went back to the Tower they all went back to their own rooms. Max and MJ had plans to hang out and catch up just the two of them. Anders invited Chris to join him and some of the others to play cards that night. Once everyone had gotten cleaned up the two women got settled on the couch with a bottle of wine and Chris headed out.

"Have fun!" MJ said.

"Watch out for Isabela, she cheats!" Max called after him.

"So do I!" Chris called as he walked out the door.

The two women laughed.

"Did you enjoy the reef today?" Max asked.

"Yeah, it was beautiful. It's great to see that you are doing well down here. I miss having you at home though." MJ replied.

"I miss it too. But I do like it here. You guys are just going to have to move down here," Max grinned.

MJ laughed, "I would actually like that but you know we can't."

"Ugh, Excuses, excuses," Max said with a laugh.

"So Max, I gotta ask, what is going on with you and Anders? I don't think I have ever heard you flirt with anyone like that before and I'm pretty sure that you got drool on your shirt when he took his off."

"Could you blame me? I mean come on! Apparently running from Templars is a good workout."

"You're avoiding the question. What's going on?"

*Sigh* "You're right; I try to avoid thinking about it because I know it can't really go anywhere. I mean, we could figure out how to send them all back to their time tomorrow and then he's gone...and I'm alone...again," Max said sadly.

"Listen, you know that Chris has been gone for a lot of the last few years, but just because I know he is leaving doesn't mean that I don't want to get as much out of the time that he is here that I can. I think it's something that you should think about anyway."

After that their conversation took a lighter turn. Max was happy to have her friend there to talk to. She was going to have to think about what MJ had said. Max wasn't sure she could handle it, but she also wasn't sure that she could handle him never knowing how she felt either.

* * *

><p>"So, Chris?"<p>

"Yes Isabela?"

"You have known Max for a long time right?"

"Yeah, for about 10 years."

"Leave it Isabela," Anders growled at the pirate.

"Come on Blondie, let Rivaini finish," Varric grinned.

"So Chris, what do you think Anders should do with Max? Varric and I think he should just master her taint already, I mean, he is a Grey Warden, they know all about taints. Oh! or they could play hide the staff, get it staff, cause they're mages," Isabela said chuckling.

"Well Isabela, I have spent a great deal of time away from my wife and our family over the last few years, and I have learned that you have to take advantage of situations when the opportunity, shall we say, arises," Chris replied with a grin.

"Ohh, I like you," Isabela laughed.

Anders couldn't believe Isabela. Well actually he could. She wasn't going to let this go. Varric wouldn't either apparently.

"Come on Blondie, I haven't seen you have this much fun in years. You should see yourself when she's around. It's almost as if Justice is nowhere in there and it's just Anders. It's a welcome change from brooding and blowing up Chantries. Besides I think the Elf was taking it personal, you were muscling in on his broody territory."

"For what it's worth, I haven't seen Max this happy in a long time either. But it could just be the weather, it's warmer here," Chris said with a smile at Anders that said he didn't think that it was the weather.

* * *

><p>Max woke up the next day to an e-mail from First Enchanter Mara asking to see her and Anders as soon as possible. Max thought that it was a little odd that Mara wanted to see the both of them, but then she was considered somewhat of an expert on spirits so perhaps the odd thing was that she hadn't asked to meet Anders, and Justice, sooner. Max went through her morning routine and headed out. She told MJ and Chris that she would be back later and headed toward the elevator. When she got to their door she knocked hard.<p>

"Maker's balls woman, you knock like Aveline!" Varric exclaimed as he answered the door.

"Sorry, I just like to make sure that my presence is acknowledged," Max replied with a smile, pushing her hair over her shoulder in an exaggerated motion.

Varric laughed, "Anyone who doesn't acknowledge your presence, madam, is a fool. Chris was great fun last night, he's worse at Diamondback than Daisy but he's good for some laughs."

"Yeah, he's good people. I'm glad you all had fun last night."

"So what can I do for you this lovely morning?"

"I was looking for Anders actually; I got a message this morning from the First Enchanter. She wants to meet with the two of us."

Max thought she saw a grin cross Varric's face when she mentioned Anders but it was gone quickly.

"Just the two of you, what about Daisy?"

"The message just said the two of us. I'm not sure what it's about."

"Well have a seat and chat with me for a while, Blondie is prettying himself up right now. He should be out soon enough. There's only so much you can do to fix the mess the Maker gave him."

Max laughed, "Well Varric, not everyone can be a dashing dwarf with magnificent chest hair like you, then you wouldn't be special."

"Don't kid yourself, I would still be special," Varric grinned.

Max had been listening to Varric tell stories for about ten minutes before Anders came out of the bathroom. He had been in the shower. When he came out he had one towel around his waist and he was using another one to dry his hair. Shit. I would sell my soul to be that towel, either towel really. Max felt her heart start to race as her mind started to think about how his body would feel against hers, his hands moving over her body, over her ass, her breast, in her...

"Shit Blondie, put some clothes on, we have company." Varric said yanking Max from a very dangerous line of thinking.

Anders looked up and smiled when he saw Max. "Hi Max. Umm, I'll be back in a second."

Varric was telling Max about how Aveline 'courted' Donnic when Anders came out of his room. "Did you need something Max? Or did you just want to see me getting out of the shower?" Anders asked with a smirk on his face. God that smirk was almost as bad as when he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Oh, you thought I was here to see you getting out of the shower. And here I was telling Varric how much I like dashing dwarves," Max said, answering his smirk with a raised eyebrow and a grin.

"Well, I will just leave you alone with Varric and his chest hair," Anders said as he hung his head in mock disappointment.

Varric had watched the exchange with a big grin on his face interjected, "Now Blondie, no need to be sad. I have already explained to Max that she is just too tall for me."

Max laughed, she was a lot of things but at 5'5" tall was not one of them. "Actually Anders I did come here for a reason. The First Enchanter wants to see the two of us as soon as possible."

"Really, why now? She has not asked to meet me before. Is Merrill coming as well?"

"Really. And no, it's just you and me. I don't know why," Max responded.

"Well then, lead the way."

* * *

><p>Anders and Max continued to banter back and forth on their elevator ride up. Maker he wanted to just grab her right there in the elevator. Shit, when she was there when he had gotten out of the shower he wanted to grab her and drag her right back into the shower with him. He couldn't help but think that two people could make very good use of a shower together.<p>

When they reached the floor where the First Enchanters Office was Anders looked around curiously. It was obvious that this was where the highest ranking enchanters and Templars had their offices. He followed Max down the hall. She stopped at a desk where a petite woman with short brown hair was sitting, typing quickly.

"Hey Layla, we're here to see the First Enchanter," Max told the woman.

Layla stopped typing and looked at Anders, she looked as if she wanted to say something but she reconsidered and turned back to Max, "She told me to send you both in as soon as you got here."

They walked through the doors into the office and Anders was immediately impressed by the size of it. Books lined the walls on either side of the room and the view was the same as in the library only from higher up. He saw a small woman with short, curly blonde hair. She looked sweet but there was also something there that said she could and would act, and act violently, if necessary.

"Come in, come in. Have a seat. So this is Anders! I have been meaning to meet all of you while you were here but I have been busy trying to coordinate finding the blood mage who brought you all here with the Templars and reaching out to contacts of mine to try to find a way to get you all back where you belong. I hope you have been enjoying your time here. I am curious what you in particular think of how the Circle has changed since your time."

"Thank you First Enchanter. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I cannot speak for my companions, but I am quite enjoying my stay here. The changes that have taken place within the Circles have made me very happy," Anders replied.

"Excellent, and please call me Mara," she smiled. "We have made some progress recently tracking the blood mage. The Templars think he's holed up in Little Havana. They have it narrowed down to a few blocks. I have had a few promising leads come back through my contacts on rituals that may return everyone to where they belong. They still require some further investigation though."

"Is there any way we could take a look at any of it? Combined with the research we have been doing we may find something there?" Max asked.

They spent about half an hour discussing some of the information that she had and they were able to see some interesting parallels in some of the research they had done here.

"Max, would you mind stepping into the hall for a moment? There is something I would like to discuss with Anders privately," Mara asked, in a way that left no doubt that it wasn't actually a question.

Max hesitated, obviously surprised, "Uh, yes First Enchanter." She rose and headed toward the door. She looked at Anders with a look that was confused, and maybe a little worried.

Once the door was closed the First Enchanter looked Anders in the eye. "I want to talk to you about Justice," she said bluntly.

"What about Justice?" Anders asked warily.

"It is my understanding that the two of you have both changed as a result of you occupying the same body."

"You could say that…." Anders was not sure where this was going.

"What would you say if I told you that there was a way to separate you without harming either of you? Justice would return to the Fade and you would have your mind and body back to yourself."

"What's the catch?"

"Justice has to be willing."

"And?"

"That's the hardest part. First someone must go into the Fade to speak with Justice, to confirm that he is willing to let you go. Then there is a ritual that we can perform that will separate you. It is a complicated ritual, there must be a mage in the Fade to help Justice let go. But I thought that you should be given the option, if you want it."

"How do you know of this? Why didn't Max tell me about this?" Anders asked; his mind was swimming.

"Max doesn't know about it. Most mages only know of ways to separate a spirit from a host that will destroy the spirit. I am somewhat of an expert on spirits and some of the research I have been doing since your arrival has been into the cases where the host and spirit were successfully separated," Mara explained.

Anders sat there stunned. He wasn't sure what to think. He wanted to believe that it was possible but he didn't know if he could. It seemed too good to be true.

Mara's voice pulled Anders from his revelry, "Max has told you how we know that we find away to return you to where you came from, right?"

Anders nodded, "She said it's because there are historical accounts of what happened to all of us after the Fall of the Chantry in Kirkwall."

Mara looked intently into Anders eyes, "Not all of you."

Anders head was spinning, she had thrown a lot of information at him all at once. Then suddenly she stood up and walked toward one of the book shelves. She pulled down a book, and as she did so she continued to talk.

"We have a real shortage of strong healers. Most mages don't see the point anymore, with the advent of modern medicine. It would be nice to have someone around who could teach and inspire others the rekindle the class." She handed the book to Anders and then walked toward the door. "It was very nice meeting you this morning Anders. I hope that you take the things I have said under consideration," she said with a smile.

Anders made his was out of the office. He barely registered the concern on Max's face as he left the office. He walked toward the elevators in a daze; he couldn't believe all of the information she had just dumped on him at once. He was having a hard time registering it all. Suddenly something hit him.

"Anders! What the fuck happened in there?" Max looked scared. She was worried.

Anders looked around, he didn't remember getting on the elevator. "She told me there was a way to separate me and Justice and we would both survive."

"What? You're kidding! How?"

Anders shook his head, "All I really remember is that it involves someone going into the Fade, and Justice has to agree to it."

They were quiet the rest of the elevator ride. As they reached the apartment Anders was staying in he turned to her. "I need some time to think about what she told me."

Max looked startled. "Ok, call me if you need anything."

Anders went inside the apartment. He looked at the book the First Enchanter had given him. The title read 'On Spirit Possessions, A Comprehensive Collection'.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Max tried desperately to hide her annoyance while she waited. Layla would surely tell Mara how she was acting. It was not easy; she wanted to know what the First Enchanter had to talk to Anders about without her being there.

When he finally came out of the First Enchanter's office he walked passed her as if she wasn't even there. He hit the call button for the elevator and got on with a dazed look in his eyes.

"Anders. Anders! ANDERS!" she shouted at him to try to get his attention. When he wasn't acknowledging her she hit him with a minor force spell to try to get his attention. That seemed to knock him out of his reverie. "Anders! What the fuck happened in there?"

He finally looked at her, actually registering that she was there. "She told me there was a way to separate me and Justice and we would both survive."

"What? You're kidding! How?"

Anders shook his head, "All I really remember is that it involves someone going into the Fade, and Justice has to agree to it."

They were silent the rest of the elevator ride. Max couldn't believe it. She also couldn't believe that Mara would suggest it. They should be trying to return them in as close to the same condition as possible as they came here.

As they reached Anders apartment he turned to her. "I need some time to think about what she told me," he said.

Max was surprised. Whatever had happened in that office had really shaken him. "Ok, call me if you need anything," was all she could think to say.

Max stood there for a minute trying to collect her thoughts. As she turned to head back to the elevator she thought that Mara had to have said more than just the possibility of Anders being separated from Justice. She believed that that would have rattled him but she didn't think that it would have affected him as much as she had just seen. If anything she thought he would have been happy, excited about the prospect of having his mind back to himself. She thought she might know what it may have been and she hoped that he didn't hold it against her that she hadn't told him herself.

* * *

><p>Varric wasn't there when Anders came back. He was glad of that; he needed some time alone to organize his thoughts on what had just happened. He and Justice could be separated. It felt as if Justice was happy at the prospect. He had seemed content while they were here. They had not encountered any injustices, not that they didn't exist just they hadn't seen them. And Anders' anger had subsided as a result of seeing the freedoms that mages here had.<p>

_Not all of you_. Those words hadn't stopped swirling in Anders' head since the First Enchanter had said them. Her words didn't mean that he didn't have a history after the fall of the Chantry, just that it wasn't recorded. But why wouldn't Max have told him about that? Why would she say she knew what had happened to them all when she didn't? He felt the anger rise in him. Did she think he couldn't handle it? He had been prepared for it!

And then there was the last part about a shortage of healers. It almost seemed as if Mara wanted him to stay here. That alone seemed odd. Max talked about not making changes in history because of the ripple effect that it could have. There was no way of knowing what it could change. So why would the First Enchanter want Anders to stay. Perhaps that was why she alluded that he had no future to go back to. Perhaps she was alluding that he had chosen to stay here and that is why there are no accounts of what happened to him there. Or maybe she was just hoping that was what he decided. It wasn't as if he hadn't already considered it. The idea of living in a world where he would never have to worry about Templars, where he was free to chose where he wanted to go whenever he wanted was definitely appealing.

And then there was Max. He would be fooling himself if he tried to say she wasn't a factor in him considering staying. She was amazing. He had never known a woman like her. He had never been drawn to a woman in the way he was drawn to her.

Anders looked at the book Mara had given him. He picked it up and started flipping through it. This was one decision that was easy. He would definitely pursue the attempt to separate from Justice. It would be better for both of them that way.

* * *

><p>Max got back to her apartment and flopped down on the big chair she had in her living room. MJ and Chris were sitting on the couch watching her copy of Sweeney Todd. When she came in MJ turned the volume down on the TV.<p>

"How was your meeting?" she asked.

"Weird," Max replied. "Apparently there is a way to separate Anders and Justice."

"Wow, that's great! Right?" Chris said.

"I would have thought so but it was all very strange. Mara asked me to leave before she told Anders about the possibility and he acted very weird after he left her office. I think there is more to what they discussed than just separating him and Justice," Max said.

"Like what?" MJ asked.

"Well, whenever any of them have asked over the past few days how I'm sure that we find a way to return them it's because there are accounts of what happened in their lives after the fall of the Kirkwall Chantry."

"Yeah, that makes sense," MJ said.

"Well that's not strictly accurate. There are accounts of what happened to all of them…..except Anders. He just vanishes. There is nothing."

"Maybe he just goes into hiding and stays there," Chris suggests.

"I have wondered what happened to him since I was a girl. If someone had killed him they would have shouted it from the rooftops. And I could never believe that after making that big of a move he wouldn't be part of the subsequent war. It just never fit."

"Maybe he stays here," MJ said.

"That is precisely the thought I have been trying to avoid. I didn't tell him because I didn't want to entertain the thought that he might stay. I really didn't think it was possible." Max said running her fingers through her hair.

"Max, what if he does stay?"

"I don't know if I can even begin to think about that. I am afraid that if I let myself go down that path, it will be that much harder to let him go."

"Well then it's a good thing that there is a party tonight to take your mind off of these things!" Chris said.

Max had almost forgotten about the floor party tonight. It was going to be on the floor above hers and she knew there was no way out of it. That was probably a good thing. She could use the distraction right about now.

* * *

><p>"Hey Blondie! You in here?"<p>

Anders heard Varric calling for him from the living room. He looked at the clock, he had been reading the book the first enchanter had given him for hours. He suddenly received a loud complaint from his stomach. He realized that he hadn't eaten in a while which was extremely unusual with his Grey Warden appetite. He put down the book and walked into the other room. He saw Kyle was with Varric and they had bags of food.

"I figured that you would be hungry!" Varric grinned.

"Yeah, it was your idea," Kyle said sarcastically.

"Well I was the one who reminded you that Blondie eats like a horse."

Kyle rolled his eyes, "Fine, whatever."

"So how was your meeting Blondie?"

"Well, apparently they know how to successfully reverse spirit possessions here."

"Are you serious? You mean you could get that voice out of your head for good?" Varric asked.

"Yeah, he would return to the Fade and I would get my mind and body back. He has to agree to it though."

"Well shit, you've gotta do it!" the dwarf said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, Justice seems to favor the idea as well. After seeing everything here he seems to believe that it is best for him to return to where he belongs."

"Well I would say that that is a reason to celebrate tonight!" Kyle exclaimed. "So there will be no excuses for missing the floor party!"

"Now explain to me again, what exactly is a floor party?" Varric asked as Anders started to quiet his complaining stomach.

"Well it is going to be on the floor below this one, and essentially it is when everyone on the floor opens their apartments and people just kind of wander from one apartment to the next. There's music and drinking and dancing"

"You had me at drinking," Varric replied.

Anders had to admit, he did have reason to celebrate. He was going to have his mind back and maybe the opportunity at more…


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Max could hear the music coming from upstairs through her ceiling. They were not messing around tonight. She smiled. This was going to be a good night. She could feel it. She finished getting ready, she wasn't going in anything much different than what she normally wore. She was still wearing jeans and a tank top, but this one had more embellishments on it, and she was also wearing more jewelry than she ordinarily would and some makeup, which she ordinarily never wore. Although part of this was in consideration of the bet she made a few weeks ago that she may have to pay up on tonight. Although either way she thought she would still win in her mind, she thought with a grin.

Max, MJ and Chris left her apartment and made their way to the elevator.

"Hey guys wait up!"

Max turned around and saw Kay and Liv walking down the hall.

"You ready for your bet with the boys?" Liv asked with a grin.

"I have my supplies right here," Max said holding up the change of clothes and her itouch.

"Where are you going to leave it?" Kay asked.

"In Nick's apartment, that is the furthest from Caleb and Ethan's apartment which is where most of the nonsense will be going on."

"What bet?" MJ asked as they got on the elevator.

"You remember the OK Go video with the treadmills? I bet the boys they couldn't learn it in 2 weeks. If they do then I will bellydance for them tonight," Max said with a grin. Ever since Kyle and Ethan had found out that she used to bellydance regularly they, and Nick and Caleb, had been trying to convince her for a show. So 2 weeks ago she made them a deal, a dance for a dance. "If they successfully complete the choreography from the video then I will perform one song for everyone. I figure either way I win though, I don't really mind doing it and I either get to see them complete the dance, which would be awesome, or I get to watch them fall all over each other, which is also awesome!" Max laughed.

"So you needed a change of clothes?" Kay asked.

"Yeah the deal is for a performance, if my full on costumes weren't such a pain to get into I would have brought one of them but they are just getting black yoga plants, a black top, and a hip scarf."

"I heard they set up a screen behind the treadmills so the video can play behind them so you can see that they got it right," Liv said smiling.

Just then the elevator doors opened overwhelming them with the music blaring.

"Come on let's get some drinks!" Liv shouted and pushed through the crowd to the makeshift bar.

* * *

><p>Anders was on the elevator with Varric, Merrill, Fenris, Aveline, and Isabela. Sebastian had flatly refused to come, no matter how much Max insisted that it would be fun. Isabela was practically vibrating with excitement, she was looking forward to a night of drinking and debauchery. She was looking forward to trying a drink called a red headed slut that Max had told her about. Although she was disappointed to hear that it didn't come with an actual red head so she said she would bring Aveline, her own red head! They could hear the din of the music before the elevator doors opened.<p>

As the elevator doors opened they were slammed by the music. Max told Anders that the instrument was called and electric guitar. As they made their way to the apartment that seemed to house the most people the music got louder. They walked into the room and there was a video playing on one of the walls and it seemed to feature people playing the music. In front of it were, was that 8, of what they called treadmills set up. That seemed kind of odd.

_(Hey!) Get, get, get, get, get over it!_

About two thirds of the people there raised their hands with the _Hey!_. Just then Anders saw someone grab Isabela's arm.

"Isabela, you like whiskey right? Of course you do! Well, I would like to introduce you to my friend Jack," Max said holding up a cup. She wasn't slurring but she had definitely had been drinking already. Her faced was flushed. It added a little color to her cheeks and it was actually attractive. She was wearing a tank top that was different from her normal ones, this one had some kind of strange bead sewn to it to make it sparkle. And it showed more of her cleavage than she usually did.

"Who's Jack?" Merrill asked.

"Jack Daniels, we don't hang out that often, but when we do it's always good times! _Ain't it just a bitch? What a pain...Well it's all a crying shame. What left to do but complain? Better find someone to blame. (Hey!) Get, get, get, get, get over it!_" Max sang along with the song.

Kyle walked up with Ethan and 2 other guys, "Are you ready Max?"

"I'm ready if you are, but frankly I don't think you boys will be able to handle it!" Max replied standing up straight, smirking. "_Aren't you such a catch? What a prize! Got a body like a battle axe... Love that perfect frown, honest eyes...We ought to buy you a Cadillac. (Hey!) Get, get, get, get, get over it!_" Max finished singing in Kyle's face.

"Ready for what? May I ask," asked Varric.

"You may sir dwarf. These fine young gentlemen and I have a little wager for this evening. They have to perform a dance for everyone and if they are successful then I will return the favor."

"Ohh, what kind of dances?" Isabela asked provocatively.

"Well, we be using the treadmills and Max here will be bellydancing!" one of the 2 guys Anders didn't know answered.

"Bellydancing?" Isabela asked raising any eyebrow, "Sounds interesting." She turned looking Max up and down.

"Ohh it is," the same guy replied.

"It is actually an ancient style of dance that men were never supposed to even see. It was something women did in the Harem to entertain themselves," Max said.

"Why is that?" Anders asked, intrigued.

"Because they can't handle it," Max replied flirtatiously.

Anders was just about to reply that he could handle it when the music stopped "Where are the boys? It's time to put up or shut up!" Liv was hollering from where the treadmills were.

"Let's go gentlemen. Watch carefully Max! You're next,"

"Whatever," Max said flippantly.

As the guys got into position on the treadmills and proceeded to go through the whole song with the video playing behind them. It was actually pretty impressive and Max seemed highly entertained by the whole thing. The whole crowd did actually. There were quite a few times that people would cheer and Max shouted "Woohoo!" more than once. Kyle even was singing along and doing the little extra moves the singer had. Max was laughing hysterically when it was all over.

"I don't think I have ever seen anyone so happy to lose a bet in my life, sweet thing," Isabela said with a grin.

"I was never all that worried about losing, I figured it would be great either way! Either they would pull it off and it would be awesome, or they would fail and it would be hilarious! They only had 2 weeks to learn the whole thing," Max replied.

"Alright Max! Time to pay the piper!" Ethan shouted as a new song started.

"Let me go change and I will be right back!" she said heading for the door.

While she was gone they folded the treadmills and moved them against the wall and brought in a few more chairs. Anders was in the kitchen talking to Varric, Isabela, and Aveline when Max returned. She was wearing some very formfitting black pants and a black top that was similar in style to the bathing suit she had worn on the boat. Around her hips was a large blue scarf that had gold coins hanging from the edges that jingled when she walked. All of the seats in the living room were already full so they were forced to stay in the kitchen. There was only a counter in between the living room and the kitchen so Anders just leaned forward putting his arms on the counter. Aveline and Isabela were on either side of him. Just then he noticed that Varric had managed to get a seat up front. He had no idea how the dwarf did it, he was just in the kitchen a second ago!

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is so short, but I thought this was the best place to break for the next chapter.<strong>

**The song the the boys dance to it Ok Go 'Here it goes again' If you have never seen the video then I definitely recommend checking it out on you tube, it is great! The other song in this chapter, that Max is singing, is also an Ok Go song 'Get over it'. I put it in there because I thought that it would be a way that the boys would try to get everyone hyped up for their performance, with more Ok Go songs. Also, it is a great song!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Max got changed in Nick's apartment. She grabbed her itouch and queued up the song she was planning on dancing to. They had no idea what they were into. They wanted to see her bellydance because they thought it would be hot. She had chosen a slow song so her moves would be deliberate, like butter one of the women she used to dance with would say. She was kind of curious what their visitors from Thedas would think. She was fairly sure that Isabela and Varric would love it, Merrill would probably get flustered. She wasn't sure what Fenris and Aveline would think, they had a tendency to surprise her at times. It was probably best that Sebastian hadn't come, the choir boy wouldn't be able to handle it. And Anders, her heart leapt at the thought of Anders watching her dance like that. She would have preferred to do that alone.

Max walked into the room, she was a little nervous. She had danced in front of larger crowds but she had never danced in front of a crowd that contained so many of her friends. It was easier to do this in front of strangers, she didn't care what they thought of her. She gave Liv her itouch and told her she just had to hit play.

As she heard the tabla start and she just focused on the music. She ticked her hips along with the tabla beat. Then as the rhiata, she believed that was the instrument, started she changed her hip movement to match the flowing sounds of the woodwind.

* * *

><p>At first Anders just noticed that the music was unlike anything he had heard before. It didn't sound as modern as the other songs he had heard since being here. The instrument was some kind of drum. Then he saw Max. Maker's balls, he had never seen a woman move like that. At first it was slow controlled movements of her hips matching the drums. Then another instrument started, and her movements changed to match it. She moved more fluidly, undulating her body and rolling her hips slowly to match the whine of it. Anders was suddenly grateful to be standing behind the counter and for the tightness of the pants. They would help hide his growing desire.<p>

* * *

><p>Max had found her rhythm with the song. She was no longer nervous and was enjoying the music. She had always liked this song. About halfway through the song she looked up into the crowd and locked eyes with Anders. There was desire in his eyes that she had never seen there before. She felt her own desire rise to match what she saw in his eyes. As she rolled her hips through undulations and umi's she felt her pulse quicken, and it wasn't just because she was dancing. Even when she looked away she could feel his eyes on her, burning into her. It was almost as if she could see the thoughts in his head, thinking about how those moves could be used in other ways.<p>

* * *

><p>"If you don't have sex with her after this, I will," Isabela purred in Anders' ear. He could hear the desire in her voice, but he paid her no mind. At that moment he made eye contact with Max and it was as if the rest of the room instantly vanished. He felt his cock get even harder as she looked at him with desire in her eyes. He couldn't help but think about how it would feel having her roll her hips like that while he was inside of her.<p>

Then the song was over and so was the moment. Another song came on and this one was faster and other people started to get up and dance. He saw some of the women there asking Max to show them how to do some of the moves she had done. He finished his drink in one long gulp and stood there for a minute while he calmed down.

"That was one hell of a show," Varric said. "You alright there Blondie?"

"I'm fine," Anders replied turning to refill his drink.

When he turned back around he realized that Max was gone. He also realized that he had too much to drink and he needed to relieve himself. He wandered down the hall toward one of the apartments that was a little further away from the others. The door was open and there were a few people in the living room, including Isabela and one of the guys he didn't know who had danced on the treadmills. They directed him to the facilities. When he came out of the washroom he almost walked right into Max. She had changed back into her other clothes but as soon as he saw her all he could think of was the way she had been dancing. He grabbed her, pushing her against the wall and brought his mouth down on hers finally giving in to his hunger for her.

* * *

><p>After dancing for a little bit longer Max decided that she wanted to change back into her regular clothes. She made her way back to Nick's apartment where she had left her things. She saw Nick and Isabela flirting on his couch along with a few other people there who wanted to be a little further from all the commotion up the hall. Max went into Nick's room and quickly changed her clothes. As she walked out of his room someone coming out of the bathroom almost walked into her. She saw it was Anders and was about to say something clever but before she could he had her up against the wall and he was kissing her.<p>

No one had ever kissed her like that before. It felt as if electricity was coursing from his lips through her entire body. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, she felt like her head was swimming. He had one hand wrapped in her hair and the other was on her waist. She felt him lean his body into hers and she could feel his erection through his pants. She felt her own body respond as she leaned into him. She kissed him back, responding to the hunger with which he kissed her with hunger of her own. She had spent so much time thinking about what this would be like yet never in her wildest dreams had it been like this.

"Shit, ohh, sorry," Isabela stifled a laugh coming around the corner. "We'll just come back later, you two have fun!"

Max thought she heard the pirate say under her breath "about damn time" but she couldn't be sure. Anders was across from Max leaning on the wall opposite from where she was. She turned towards Anders and she felt him grab her arms, only this time he held her at arm's length.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. He looked hurt.

"That Isabela was coming around the corner? I didn't know," Max responded, confused.

"That there is no account of what happens to me after I blew up the Chantry."

Max took a deep breath and tried to collect her thoughts. Her thoughts were still muddled from that kiss, and the alcohol left in her system probably didn't help.

"I didn't think it would matter," Max replied quietly. The truth was that she was afraid to think of the possibility of him staying but she couldn't say it, not to him.

"Of course it matters! It changes everything!"

Max was confused, and she knew that it was written all over her face. What did it change? He still had to go back.

Anders ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "I need to go." He looked at her with sadness in his eyes. Then he turned and walked away.

Max watched him walk away. She was confused, and upset. She wasn't sure what had just happened. She made her way back to the main part of the party. She looked around the room for Anders but she didn't see him. She made her way to the alcohol and made herself a drink. She proceeded to try to wash away her confusion with alcohol and loud music.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors note: Another short chapter, but important! The song that Max dances to is by Suhaila Salimpour and it is called 'Edge of Survival'. You can see her troupe perform to it on you tube here: .comwatch?v=gPteNwdh1iA** **They do not dance to it the way I imagine Max dancing but at least you can hear the song!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Anders wasn't sure if he should curse Isabela or thank her. If she hadn't interrupted he wouldn't have stopped, couldn't have stopped. Max had responded, with the same hunger he had. When he pulled away he remembered that he was upset with her. He still didn't know why she hadn't told him that he wasn't in their history books, at least not past Kirkwall. She had been so open with so many other things. Why not that? Maybe she didn't want...but that couldn't be it. She had responded with the same passion that he had.

He got off the elevator and went into the apartment that he and Varric shared. He could still hear the music from the floor below. That would likely be the case for most of the night. Anders grabbed the book that the First Enchanter had given him and went out on to the balcony. He resolved to talk with First Enchanter Mara first thing in the morning. He wanted some clarification on certain things. And he was ready to separate from Justice. He was ready to take his life back.

* * *

><p>Max woke up still in her clothes from the night before. She looked at the clock, it was 2 in the afternoon. <em>Crap<em>. She hated sleeping the day away. She got up and wandered into the living room. She found a note from MJ and Chris. They had left for the day, she wouldn't see them until the next day. Today was the day that she had set up for them to stay in a hotel room on Miami Beach and have the day all to themselves. Then they would be flying home late tomorrow afternoon.

Max hopped in the shower and got herself cleaned up. She was amazed that her head wasn't screaming after the amount of alcohol she had to drink last night. She was looking forward to a nice quiet day that day. She had told her friends that she was going to spend the day hiding in her apartment and she wanted the day to herself. She curled up on her couch and was just about to start catching up on the shows on her DVR when her phone went off. It was a text message from one of her classmates. She wanted Max to help her with something she was having trouble understanding. Max tried to blow her off but she persisted. Max finally gave in. She threw on her flip flops and headed toward their campus on Virginia Key.

When she got out of her car she immediately felt something was wrong. She started having trouble moving. _Blood magic. Shit._

"Well, well. I believe that you have something of mine," a low voice growled from behind her.

"Well then I am terribly sorry. I try not to take other people's things. If you could just let me go I'm sure that we could resolve this whole situation and maybe even laugh about it later," Max replied.

"I don't think so. You shouldn't be able to move at all right now, so the fact that you can at all tells me that you are very powerful. And I have no interest in fighting you right now."

"Why, no demon here to do your dirty work this time?"

Suddenly Max felt as if her blood was on fire. Her vision blurred and had she been able she would have been curled in a ball on the ground. She was screaming, and pissed that she was. She hated giving him the satisfaction. Then suddenly everything went black.

* * *

><p>Anders had not been able to speak to the First Enchanter when he had wanted. He hadn't thought that she might be busy, although he wasn't surprised when he did think about it. As it turned out she was in meetings all morning and wouldn't be free until after lunch. He decided to try to do more research in the library but he found it hard to focus. He was anxious about talking to First Enchanter Mara. He wanted to get Justice out, he wanted to see if it would be possible for him to stay here. And he wanted Max. He wouldn't fight it anymore. But he wanted everything else in order before he talked to her.<p>

Finally 1 o'clock rolled around and Layla led him into Mara's office.

"Well hello Anders, this is a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you?" Mara said with a knowing smile as he walked in.

"I want to go through with the ritual to separate from Justice."

"Certainly. We will not be able to do it today. First someone will need to go into the Fade and confirm with Justice that he is willing. Then we will be able to continue with the ritual. The soonest we would be able to try the first part would be tomorrow."

"That would be wonderful," Anders paused. "There is more."

Mara smiled again, "What would you like to discuss?"

"Are there any accounts of what happened to me after the fall of the Kirkwall Chantry?"

"No, there are none."

"When we find the ritual to return everyone to the Dragon Age I want to stay here."

"Are you sure about that? I would happily welcome you expertise in healing magic. But that is a significant change. There is still a great deal you don't know about the way the world works now," Mara said.

"I know it may seem as if I haven't but I have actually given this a great deal of thought. There is nothing left for me there."

"And there is something here?" Mara asked, a knowing twinkle in her eye.

"I believe so," Anders answered. He tried to put as much conviction in his voice as he could, probably as much to convince himself as her.

"Well if that is what you truly wish there really is nothing I can do to stop you."

Anders was elated, everything was working out the way he had hoped. "Thank you First Enchanter. Thank you so much."

"You are quite welcome. Now let's plan to meet again tomorrow at the same time and we will move forward with separating you and Justice."

"Thank you again," Anders said as he left the office. He had to keep himself from running to the elevator. Now there was only one thing left to do. He had to see Max.

When he reached her apartment he banged on the door. There was no answer. She should be there, she said she wasn't planning on leaving her apartment that day. He banged again. Still no answer. Just then he saw Kay and one of the treadmill guys from the party.

"Have you seen Max today?" he asked them.

"No, Caleb, didn't she say she was going to stay in her apartment all day," Kay said looking confused.

"Yeah she did. Maybe she had to run to the store or something," Caleb offered.

"I need to talk to her. It is very important," Anders told them.

"Well I can try to call her if you want," Kay offered. "At least then you will know when she'll be back."

"Yes, thank you. I would appreciate it."

Kay pulled out her phone and put it to her ear. Anders could hear it ringing. Then he heard a voice come through. Kay shook her head. "It went to voicemail. I'll leave her a message and send her a text to let her know you are looking for her."

"Thanks Kay. I really appreciate it. I will see you later."

Anders headed back up to the apartment to wait. He hoped she would be back soon. He was practically bursting to tell her everything.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: I wanna give a quick shout out to starry-eyed-vixen and Eliana123 for being my first two reviews, ever! I really appreciate the love, it totally made my week! I am glad that someone other than me is enjoying the story.<strong>

**Also I wanna thank those who have added this story to their alerts and favs, and everyone who is reading and enjoying this. I am glad that people are enjoying this story! So Thank You!  
><strong>


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Max's head was throbbing. Man I hate hangovers. She tried to rub her eyes and that's when she realized that her hands were tied together. She remembered everything then. _I can't believe I got caught by that fucking blood mage._ Max tried to cast a spell to get out of the binding and immediately regretted it as her head felt like it was going to spontaneously split open. There was a charm on the area to dispel magic. She hated to admit it but she was in trouble.

Just then the door to the room she was in opened and the blood mage from earlier sauntered in. He was dressed impeccably in pressed grey slacks and a pale blue button down shirt. He was clearly in good shape and he was trying to flaunt it.

"So you're finally awake I see. I was starting to wonder if your powers of recuperation were not what I thought they were," he leaned comfortably on the wall across from the chair Max was in. "You have remarkable blood as well my dear. The power you could wield is astonishing. But I have been rude, I haven't introduced myself. I am Jace Long, and I would very much like to get Champion Hawke's Companions back. I went to a great deal of trouble to bring them here and I would rather it not be a wasted effort."

"Well it's about time that you acknowledged the rudeness of your anonymity. Some people just have no manners anymore," Max replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Jace laughed, "I guess I could see where you may see some of my other actions as being rude as well."

"Ohh no, I prefer when people I barely know kidnap me and steal my blood to perform dark rituals with. If you let me go I will happily slit my wrists and dance naked in the moonlight with you," Max said sardonically.

"Hmm, I doubt your sincerity my dear. Although, I would prefer to have you as an ally, as I said your power is rather remarkable. I wonder, do you know where it comes from?"

"It must be all the puppies and kittens I sacrifice. Sometimes I even throw in a bunny for good measure."

"It really is a shame that you are being so uncooperative. No matter, I have no qualms about using you as bait. From what I hear you have become rather close with Hawke's companions. I have been informed that you spend a great deal of time with them, making sure that they are as comfortable as possible in this strange new world. I believe they will insist on coming to find you. If I were you I would hope they come sooner than later. I don't know how long I will be able to resist the power in your blood," he said with a chilling smile. He then sauntered out the room the way he came in.

Max took the time to look around the room she was in. It was essentially a large walk in closet. The only thing in there was a light over head, the chair and her. She could feel the cut on her arm where the bastard had taken her blood. He would pay for that when she got out of this. She occupied her time trying to think of ways she could get out. While she thought she twisted her wrists to try to loosen her restraints. It was all she could do besides wait, and she couldn't just sit there and wait to be rescued. She had to try something.

* * *

><p>After about an hour and a half of waiting Anders was starting to worry. Where could she be that she would be gone this long on a day that she was planning on spending quietly alone in her apartment?<p>

"Shit Blondie, quit pacing, you're making Bianca nervous, and you know how twitchy she already is." Varric urged from where he was sitting rubbing oil onto the crossbow.

"She should have responded by now. There is no reason for it," Anders said as he continued pacing. He felt Justice swirling in his head in response to his anxiousness.

Just then there was a knock at the door.

"There you go Blondie, that is probably her."

Anders opened the door ready to demand to know where she had been all this time but the words died on his lips. It was Kay and Caleb at the door, not Max. Anders just groaned and returned to his pacing.

"Don't mind Blondie, he lived in Darktown too long and now he has forgotten his manners. Please come in."

"It's ok. We stopped by to see if he had heard from Max. I was a little worried because she never texted me back and she always acknowledges messages so that you know she got them," Kay said, her tone reinforcing the concern she expressed.

"Something happened to her. I knew it, we have to go find her," Anders said making his way to the door.

"Hold on now Blondie, before you go gallivanting around the city blindly looking for her maybe we should have a plan."

"Varric is right. I will call Kyle. Caleb will you go ask the others to join us here," Kay said.

Within 15 minutes everyone was gathered in Anders and Varric's living room. Kyle had spoken with the Templars in charge of building security and they said she had left the building in her car and she had her backpack with her. Kyle believed that this meant that she was heading to her school to do work there. They all agreed that it was very strange that she still hadn't responded to Kay's messages. She had tried calling her again and still got nothing. Kyle agreed to go to her campus to look for her but when he suggested that the Thedans stay behind there was uproar.

"Over my dead body! I'm coming with you!" Anders yelled, he could feel Justice fighting for control. He wanted to go as well, he thought that Max was a fair minded woman and he liked her.

"If the abomination goes then so do I!" Fenris insisted.

"This could well be a trap to get to all of you. You should stay here and let us take care of it." Kyle insisted.

"No," Anders and Fenris said in unison, glaring at each other over the insult of agreeing.

"Ugh, fine, but we are still going to be smart about this. If you come you listen to me. I give you an order and you follow it, no questions."

They both readily agreed.

"I would like to tag along if I might. I can help you keep Blondie and the Elf from killing each other, that way you can focus on finding Max." Varric offered.

"That may not be such a bad idea, but the same rules apply. You follow my orders explicitly. Ethan and Kay, I want you two to come as well," Kyle said. And with that they headed out.

When they pulled up to the campus it was obvious that something was wrong. Max's car was there but the door was still ajar and her keys were on the ground. Her phone however was gone. Kyle said there was a way they could track her phone as long as it was on.

"Then what are you waiting for, do it!" Anders demanded. This elicited a glare from the Templar but he complied. He called Caleb and he started the trace. He said he traced her phone to a condo building on Key Biscayne that had a lot of empty units.

"Let's go!" Anders urged. He felt Justice surging forward, almost as desperate for action as Anders.

"Stand down man," Kyle snapped. "We all want to find her but rushing in without a plan will only get us, and her, killed. We will go to the building and go floor to floor. We should be able to sense the magic he is using to keep her. She would have been free from anything else by now. Kay you and Ethan bring Max's car with us. We will need it to get all of us back.

As they got back in the cars Anders started to feel a bit of relief. They were finally getting somewhere. They would get her back. They had to. He had to.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Max had no idea how long she had been there. Her arms were aching. That sick fuck had come back and taken more blood at some point. Max licked her lip where it was split from his last visit. She remembered it with a wry smile.

"_I have returned my dear, and I have someone who wants to meet you," Jace said jovially as he came back in the room with some blonde tramp following him._

"_I want more of her blood, Jace. I want to bathe in the power of it," she whined at him._

"_Now, now, we can't take too much. We still need her alive for now," he cooed at her._

"_Besides, you can't handle it. That's why God didn't give it to you in the first place so now you have to steal it from others," Max added dryly._

_Jace punched her hard in the face, his face twisted with anger. "Now look at what you made me do. I got blood stains on my shirt," he said looking at her blood on his crisp shirt._

_Max snorted in amusement at the irony, but she bit her tongue. She wasn't looking to be abused more. She tried to ignore them as they cut her and squeezed to get as much of her blood into the vials they brought as possible._

Max was brought out of her reverie by the bimbo slinking back in the room. Max did not like the look in her eyes, and she saw the glint of the metal from the blade in the woman's hand.

"What do you want whore? Didn't you get enough last time?" Max spat. She was quickly rewarded by a hard slap across the face, reopening the cut on her lip. _Shit. I really need to learn to shut up sometimes._

"Jace had to go to a meeting, so it's just you and me now," she sauntered around Max. "And I want more," she whispered in Max's ear. "Your blood is just too powerful to pass up. How did it get that way? I have never seen blood like it."

Max grinned and looked the bitch in the eye, "Magic," she answered flatly. That earned her another slap.

The bimbo pulled out a knife and more vials and just as Max felt the blade on her wrist she felt something else. Someone was using magic, and it wasn't Jace. The blonde felt it too. She leapt to her feet and started casting spells, summoning shades, corpses and demons and using Max's blood to do it. She cut the binds holding Max to the chair but left her arms bound and dragged her into what Max assumed was the master bedroom of what Max could now see was an abandoned condo. The blonde stood behind her shaking with fear.

"You know you could just let me go now. Save yourself, I'm not worth the trouble really," Max told her. She wasn't sure how much the woman heard though. The sounds of fighting got closer and she summoned more demons and shades.

"I need more power," she panted putting the blade to Max's wrists again.

"NOOOOOO! Die blood mage!" Max saw Anders but he looked strange. His skin looked like it was cracking and blue light was emanating from the cracks, and his eyes were solid blue. After that everything happened so fast. The blonde dropped her, and she thought she saw Fenris cutting down everything in his path. But then Max felt her head hit the floor and everything became a blur. She felt someone grab her and pull her out of the path of the main battle.

Then suddenly those hands were replaced by another set of hands. She vaguely registered voices calling to her, and someone had freed her hands, not that they were very useful. Then suddenly she felt warmth flow through her body. It felt like being in a nice warm bed on a cold day. She felt the pain in her body fade away.

"That's should do it, she should be healed. Max, how do you feel? Are you okay?" Anders asked, his voice shaking.

"Ugh, I'm pretty sure that that is the worst hangover that I have ever had," Max said trying to sit up. She felt stiff, like she had slept funny.

"Oh thank God you're okay," Kay said grabbing her into a hug.

"Ouch, thanks Kay." Max looked around the room and there was evidence of one hell of a fight. The blonde lay in a corner, her limbs splayed at very unnatural angles. "Can we go now? Today was supposed to be my quiet, lay on the couch day."

"What the hell happened here?" Kyle asked.

"Why don't I explain everything when we get back to the tower? That way I don't have to go through it 20 times."

"Sure, let's get out of here.

* * *

><p>Anders remained quiet the drive back to the tower. He was grateful that Max was being driven in her own car. It gave him a chance to collect himself without her there watching him. When they got to the back room and he had seen that woman with a knife to Max, when he realized that the blood magic had been fueled using her blood, he lost control and Justice took over. They had killed that woman. This time Anders didn't feel bad, she had kidnapped Max, used her for blood magic, she deserved to die.<p>

When they got back to the apartment she recounted the whole tale. She told them that this Jace person was the mage who had summoned them from Thedas. She tried to gloss over the way they had bled her, but when she mentioned it Fenris' tattoos flashed and he swore in Tevinter.

"But why were they so fascinated with your blood?" Aveline asked.

"Umm, well, that's actually because of Fenris. His lyrium tattoos make it so any of his descendents who have magic are particularly powerful. Our mana doesn't drain as quickly as other mages. It's already in the blood," Max answered, looking nervously at Fenris.

"Venhedis!" Fenris said and he stormed out.

Max sighed, "I will talk to him tomorrow. I need to go to bed, if you all don't mind. Anders, would you mind walking be home?"

Anders was startled by the request, "Umm, sure, if that's what you want."

He stood there waiting while she said goodnight to everyone. They walked in silence to the elevator. Once they were in the elevator she finally spoke.

"So that was Justice huh?"

"Yeah," he answered apprehensively.

"Blue is a good color for you," she said trying to lighten the mood.

They were silent for the rest of the ride down. When they reached her apartment she turned to face him. It was the first time they had been alone since the night before.

"Thank you," she said looking into his eyes. "Kay told me that you were here looking forward me earlier. If you hadn't been here I don't know what would have happened."

Anders felt his chest tighten as he thought of what could have happened to her tonight. "There is no need to thank me, I just wish I had been here earlier, then maybe you would have never had to have gone through that."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment. The air was heavy with everything that had happened in the last 24 hours.

"Well I should probably go, you need your rest. Sleep well," Anders said as he turned to leave.

"Anders," Max said in a small voice.

He stopped and turned back to her. For the first time since he had met her she looked broken. One of the ways she was like Hawke was how she always seemed ready to take on the world. "Yes?" he asked apprehensively.

"Would you stay with me? I don't want to be alone," she asked, her eyes down in apprehension.

"If that is what you want, I will stay with you."

* * *

><p>Max had recounted the story to her friends. They had all cringed when she told them about the blood mages bleeding her, using her blood to summon demons. She had worried about telling Fenris that his markings actually produced stronger mages in his descendents. She knew what his feelings had been on mages, she also knew they softened over the years, first as a result of falling in love with Hawke and then when they had mage children. But she was concerned about how this information would color his opinion of his children in his future. When he stormed out she wasn't surprised, but she was too tired to chase after him, she would talk to him in the morning.<p>

When she decided it was time to go home she asked Anders if he would walk her home. She wanted to talk to him, about so many things. So much had happened in the last day. Kay had told her that he had stopped by to see her, that if he hadn't it would have been much longer before they had realized that she was missing. She told Max how anxious he had been to try to find her, how Kyle had worried it was a trap by the blood mage that had summoned them and both Anders and Fenris refused to stay behind.

Max was both glad and curious about Anders stopping by her apartment. She wanted to thank him, and frankly she didn't want to be alone. So when he turned to leave she had to ask him to stay with her. She was afraid of how he would react but she needed him. She was relieved when he said that he would stay.

Audrey greeted them at the door when they walked in. She jumped on the arm of the couch and looked at them expectantly. Max scratched the cat on her head and behind her ears and was rewarded with a purr. The cat crawled into her lap as she sat on the couch and settled herself in that way that cats do when they don't plan on moving anytime soon.

"Max you should really get some sleep," Anders said, concern in his voice.

"Why did you come by earlier?" Max replied, deflecting from him sending her to bed. She was exhausted but her mind was busy and she knew she wouldn't sleep without answers first.

"We can talk about it tomorrow, now you should really go to bed," Anders said standing over her.

"I have too much on my mind right now, I won't get any sleep. So please answer my question."

She heard him sigh in response. "Fine," he said finally joining her on the couch. "I met with Mara today, I am going to go through with the ritual to separate Justice and I. I wanted to tell you."

"Really! That's good. When?"

"I am meeting with her tomorrow afternoon to start the process."

Max leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes. "That will be nice," she replied sleepily.

"Max, you really should go to sleep," Anders said.

"Mmm, hmm," she replied sleepily petting her cat. "Talk to me, about anything, please," she just wanted to hear his voice.

"Anything hmmm," Anders asked provocatively. She could practically hear him smirking.

"You can talk about inappropriate things if you like, as long as you don't find me falling asleep halfway through emasculating," Max replied with a grin, her eyes still closed. She drifted off to sleep listening to Anders talk about one of the friends he had while he was with the Wardens. She thought the last thing she heard was something about sparkle-fingers, but that just didn't seem right.


	17. Chapter 17

**Note: There are some mature things in this chapter****, just wanted to give you a heads up. This is where the M rating comes in.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 17<p>

Max woke up and stretched on her bed. For the second time in two days she woke up the clothes she had been wearing the night before. That was when it all came back. Being kidnapped, being bled, falling asleep on the couch listening to Anders. He must have moved her to the bed after she fell asleep. Max laid there for a minute listening. She didn't hear anything, he must have left. She sighed. She had hoped that he would have stayed. They still hadn't talked about what had happened the other night. Max thought it felt like a lifetime ago that he had grabbed her in the hall in Nick's apartment as opposed to the night before last.

She got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She looked around and realized that Audrey wasn't on the bed. _That's odd, she always sleeps on the bed._ Max brushed her teeth and walked into the living room looking for her cat. She stopped. There on the arm of the couch was Audrey, curled up asleep, halfway on Anders' head. He had stayed. He was also asleep, one leg hanging off the couch, one arm over his head and next to the cat, and was he drooling! Max stifled a laugh. She grabbed her cell phone and turned on the phones camera. She took a quick picture of Anders passed out on the couch. That could prove entertaining later.

Max went back to her room and finished her morning routine. She put on some clean clothes and went back into the living room. Anders was still asleep but Audrey had decided that his head was no longer comfortable and was now laying on his chest. She had never seen that cat take to anyone like that. The only person she had ever condescended to sit in their lap was Max.

Max fixed herself a quick bowl of cereal and sat down in the chair in her living room. She went through the things that had happened over the last day and a half. Something Jace had said made her believe that he had at least one contact with in the Circle. That would be the smart thing to do, she just wondered if his contact was unwitting or not. Then her mind went to Fenris, she would have to talk to him today. Max then noticed that the green light was blinking on her phone. She checked her messages and she had an e-mail from the First Enchanter. She wanted to meet with her this afternoon at 12:30. She remembered Anders said that he had a meeting with Mara this afternoon as well.

Anders. She looked at him and her thoughts turned to the other night and that kiss. She was fairly certain that if Isabela and Nick hadn't come around the corner just then things would have progressed beyond just a kiss.

Suddenly Anders started to stir. He stretched, causing the cat to jump off of him. He rubbed his face and ran his hands through his hair and opened his eyes.

"You know, watching me sleep is a little creepy," he said with a smirk.

"You think that's creepy wait til you see the photo collage I plan on making from all the pictures I took. I plan on calling it 'Abomination at Rest'," Max said with a smile.

"Maker, I hope you're joking," he said sitting up.

"You just keep that dream alive," she replied sarcastically. "Are you hungry?"

"Always, such is the plight of a Warden. Do you have any of those pop-tarts? They are delicious."

"I think so, is that all you want? I have cereal, fruit, or bagels too."

"Yes please," he said.

Max had seen men put some food away but this man could eat. "Man, you weren't kidding about being hungry?" she asked in amazement. They were both sitting on the couch now. There was quite the spread of food on Max's coffee table, all of it for Anders.

"Uh, yeah. One of the side effects of being a Warden," Anders said sheepishly.

"Interesting, any other side effects I should know about before you eat me out of house and home?" Max asked, smiling to show she wasn't really worried about the food.

"Well there is that famous Warden stamina," Anders said, smirking again.

Max felt her stomach flip at the thoughts that started running through her head. "Stamina huh?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Anders looked at her, there was hunger in his eyes. Then suddenly he was kissing her again, with the same passion that he had the other night. She felt as if her body was on fire. She was kissing him back just a fiercely, their tongues dancing. He pushed her down so they were laying on the couch. She felt the weight of his body on top of hers. She had her hands wound in his hair, keeping him close. His hands were on either side of her waist. She felt his fingers playing with the hem of her shirt, occasionally brushing her skin. It was almost as if he couldn't decide whether to remove the offending garment or not. Then he pulled back, but just enough to look her in the eye.

"I'm staying here," he said. "I have decided not to go back to Thedas, to the Dragon Age. There is nothing left for me there."

"Really? Did you speak to Mara about this? Are you sure that is what you want?" the last question came out in a rush. A spark of hope flaring in her heart, hope she had been desperately trying to avoid.

Anders kissed her again, this time softer, more sensual. "Yes." Kiss. "I'm sure." Kiss. "I told her." Kiss. "That is the main reason I came to talk to you yesterday. To tell you that I have decided that I want to stay here."

* * *

><p>Anders looked in Max in the eyes. He had told her he was staying and now he was waiting for her reaction. Maker, would she say something, do something. Suddenly she reached up and pulled him back down to her, capturing his lips with hers. The kiss started slow, she ran her tongue along his lip signaling her desire to deepen the kiss and he willingly obliged. Their kisses quickly became more forceful as the desire both of them had been fighting finally broke through.<p>

Anders felt Max reach down to grab the bottom of his shirt, he pulled away from her just long enough for her to pull the shirt over his head. She grabbed his hips and pulled them closer to hers. He felt her reach down and massage his already hard cock through his pants. Anders moaned into her mouth in response. He removed her shirt and move to the end of the couch to pull off her jeans. He took a moment to look at her, to drink in the sight of her laying there in nothing but her underclothes. While he watched she removed her own bra and worked his throbbing erection with her foot, eliciting another moan from him.

She sat up and removed his pants and underclothes all at once. She straddled him, grinding against him, pressing her breasts into his chest. Anders pushed her back just enough so he could take her nipple in his mouth, he nibbled and sucked and was rewarded with a moan in the form of his name. He kneaded her other breast with his hand, occasionally tweaking her nipple. He then ran his hand down her body and teased at her panty line where her thighs met her sex. He could feel her wetness on the cloth.

"You fucking tease," she whined as he rubbed her through the fabric.

Finally unable to wait any longer she removed her own panties and straddled him again. He pulled her in for a long, deep kiss as he felt her wetness waiting at the end of his cock. He put his hands on her hips and guided her down onto him. He heard her breath catch as he filled her. Anders held her still for a moment as he relished the feel of her around him; hot, wet, tight. Then she started to move her hips, swirling and undulating causing both of them to moan. They increased their rhythm, both moving faster as they came closer to climaxing.

Anders grabbed Max's head and pulled her toward him so that he could kiss her. He moved along her neck, nibbling and sucking along the way until he knew she could feel his hot breath on her ear.

"Ohh, Anders," she moaned as she writhed on top of him, grinding into him as their pace continuing to increase.

"Maker, Max," he breathed into her ear, his fingers digging into her back.

"Oh, shit. Oh, shit Anders!" Max cried as Anders felt her body spasm as she found her release.

"Yes, Max, Maker, yes!" Anders replied as he allowed himself to reach his own release.

Anders felt Max collapse onto him, nuzzling her head in his neck. He stroked her back as they sat there, neither one of them ready to move.

"I must say, that's not a bad way to start the day," Max breathed into his neck.

Anders laughed, "I can certainly think of worse ways to begin a day."

Just then Anders heard a noise that he had come to recognize as Max getting a message on her phone. She groaned and turned to grab the phone from the coffee table behind her. She touched the screen and bit off an oath and laughed at the same time.

"Fuck, I almost forgot that MJ and Chris were still in town. That was her texting to remind me that they would be back here in about an hour and that they need to be at the airport by 4. I guess that means that we should get cleaned up."

Anders grabbed her back as she moved to get up and pulled her in for a long kiss, slipping his tongue in to tease hers. "They won't be here for an hour," he said dismissively into her lips.

She pulled back and looked at him, "I have to talk to Fenris this morning, and then First Enchanted Mara wants to see me at 12:30."

Anders groaned when she mentioned Fenris but when she mentioned the First Enchanter that caught his attention. "I am supposed to see her at 1 to start the process of separating from Justice."

He was so caught off guard that she took the opportunity to slip off of hid lap and start picking up her discarded garments off the floor. Anders couldn't help but enjoy the view of her bending over despite the fact that in meant that she was no longer in his lap. She stood up and threw his pants at him.

"C'mon, I really do need to talk to Fenris, and Varric is probably coming up with all kinds of scenarios explaining why you didn't return last night after leaving with me."

"Andraste's knicker-weasels! I hadn't thought about that," Anders said standing up following Max to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

"Andraste's what?" Max turned to him in laughing.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors note: Thanks to everyone who has added this story to their favs and notifications! It makes my day. Also, I have finals this week so after this week I hope to be posting a bit more often. I have a few more chapters past this written, they just need to be edited and loaded!<strong>


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Max could hardly believe it. Anders was staying. She had been too afraid to even hope for it. She had been burned so badly in the past, having been left before. She knew she could not start something knowing that it would only end with her being left, again. But he wasn't leaving, and she was one of the reasons why. She smiled.

As they got on the elevator she sent a quick response to MJ to let her know that the apartment would be open and that she would be back in plenty of time to take them to the airport. When she was done with the message she let her mind wander. She remembered how Anders' hands had felt on her skin, how his stubble felt on her neck, how his lips felt on hers.

"What are you thinking about?" Anders asked, laughter in his voice.

She looked up at him, "Nothing special, just you" she teased.

"Ouch, my lady, you have wounded my pride," he replied with a hand over his heart.

They laughed and he reached over to caress her cheek. Just then the elevator doors opened and they heard someone growl. They turned. It was Fenris.

"I was just coming to talk to you Max," Fenris said in a growl, not taking his eyes off of Anders.

"Well, great minds think alike, because I was just coming to talk to you," Max replied, trying to lighten the mood. "Why don't we go back to your place?"

"My place is in Thedas, with Hawke."

"Semantics, you know what I meant," Max replied dismissively. "Let's go to the apartment where you have been staying then. I will see you later," Max said turning to Anders.

"Yes you will," Anders replied turning away from Fenris' glare. Fenris continued to glare at Anders' back as he walked away.

"Come on," Max said shaking Fenris from his focus on the other mage.

They walked to the apartment in which Fenris was staying with Sebastian in silence. As they entered Max acknowledged Sebastian where he was sitting reading in the living room. Sebastian started to reply in kind but was cut off.

"You are playing with fire, you need to be more guarded around him. He is an abomination." Fenris growled at her.

"I'm a mage, playing with fire is what I do," Max replied with a smile. She sighed when she saw it did nothing to appease his anger. "Look, I am a grown woman, capable of making my own decisions. And he is not technically an abomination, and it is getting fixed anyway."

"He blew up a Chantry full of innocent people! I know it seems like a part of history to you..."

Max's voice was hard when she interrupted Fenris, "I am well aware of what he did. What he did has directly led to the fact that I am here as much as you and Hawke being together has. It can't come as a surprise to you that you and Hawke would have at least one mage child. Would you be so willing to send them to the Circle that you know! And sure, there is the possibility that they could have been protected from that by being the children of the Champion, and possibly even your grandchildren, but what of those born long after the Champion is gone? If the Circle today was the same as the Circle you knew then I wouldn't exist, neither would most of my family. My father was not a mage, nor was my mother's father. The majority of the mages in my family did not marry other mages. Those of us produced from those pairings wouldn't exist if mages were still forced to live the entirety of their lives under Circle control. So I would say that I am a far better judge of the long term consequences of Anders' actions than you."

The air was heavy as both of the men in the room took in what she said.

Max sighed, "I am not saying that I think what he did wasn't extreme, or that I agree that it was necessary. But I am keenly aware that if he hadn't done it, I would not be here. I did not come to debate the finer points of Anders' life choices. You said you were coming to talk to me, what's up?"

Fenris looked at her for a moment. "I wanted to talk about what you said, about my markings producing stronger mages."

"See, that's what I was coming to talk to you about. Is there anything in specific that you would like to know?"

"I am concerned, after all that I saw the Magisters do..." Fenris trailed off.

"Well, I will do my best to put your mind at ease. From everything I know, none of your descendents with magical abilities turn to blood magic. I was always taught that blood magic is for the weak, those who are incapable of accepting that there are and should be limits to what anyone can do. I was taught to have an appreciation for life, to understand it not destroy it. There are people in my family which would likely turn to blood magic if the choice were there, fortunately they don't have any magical abilities at all. You and Hawke do a good job, your children do not wish for power, just peace in their lives."

"How many do we have?" Fenris asked.

"Ahhh, now that I can't tell you. Half the fun is the surprise," Max replied with a grin, relieved the conversation was taking a lighter turn.

* * *

><p>Anders blood boiled under Fenris' glare, which he returned in kind. That hypocrite, condemning him for what he had done while he was involved with a mage himself. Would his condemnation be so strong when his own children were being dragged off to the Circle?<p>

Anders opened the door to the apartment he shared with Varric. His distraction over Fenris made him forget to be cautious. Isabela started from where she had obviously been sleeping on the couch and Varric was sitting in a chair, polishing Bianca.

"Well, well, look who is finally home. How was it Blondie? Was it everything you dreamed?" the dwarf asked with a smile on his face.

"Ohhh, yes, I want details! Were those hip moves of hers as wonderful as I imagine they are?" Isabela purred.

"I don't know what you 2 are talking about, I slept on the couch," Anders replied. It was not a lie.

Isabela got up and sauntered over to him. She looked him up and down and looked him dead in the eye. "You're lying, you smell like sex."

"And if Rivaini knows anything," Varric let the statement go unfinished.

Anders couldn't stop himself from smiling. "I really did sleep on the couch," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I am going to get cleaned up, since I smell," he said retreating into the bathroom ignoring his companions as they continued to try to dig for details of his night with Max.

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><p><strong>AN: Sorry it's so short. I should be posting another chapter shortly. I have hit a bit of a wall on where I want to go with this story, or rather how to get to where I wan to go. I am hoping to get it worked out quickly now that the semester is over. In the mean time I have posted a short one shot going along with this about what happens when Max and her friends introduce the Dragon Agers to Chinese food and have to teach them how to use chopsticks!** **The idea of it made me giggle!**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Max stayed with Fenris and Sebastian until it was time to meet with the First Enchanter. She enjoyed spending time with Fenris. He had a dry humor that she related to. When it came to Sebastian, Max thought he was a bit hypocritical. He was fine with exacting revenge on the people who had killed his family, and on Anders for blowing up the Chantry, but he couldn't see why Anders had exacted his vengeance on the Chantry. It seemed a perfect example of the saying 'an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.'

Max walked into the First Enchanters office. She had obviously just finished her lunch.

"Come in, come in. I hope you don't mind, I was just cleaning up my lunch. I have a very full schedule today but I needed to talk to you. I had initially just wanted to talk to you about performing the ritual to separate Anders and Justice, but it has since come to my attention what happened to you last night. Are you ok?" Mara asked, concern written on her face.

"I am doing as well as could be expected."

"Good," she replied with a relieved smile. "It is my understanding that it was the same blood mage that summoned the Champion's Companions, is that correct?"

"Yes, it was," Max paused, unsure how much she wanted to say. "He said something while I was there. He…I believe that he has allies within the Circle."

"I was afraid of that, he has always been at least one step ahead of the Templars. I will have to start looking for the leaks, but it may take time as I will need to be discrete. Hopefully whomever is helping him is unaware of what they are doing. I would hate to think that someone here was willingly doing this. But we are fighting with time to return them all home, the longer they are all here, the harder it will be to send them back."

"I understand. Did the templars find anything at the apartment?"

"There were a few leads they are looking into. I will let you know if anything comes of any of it. Now if you don't mind the change of subject, I would like to talk to you about Anders and the ritual to separate him from the spirit of Justice."

"Certainly, I am curious about it."

"It will take a few days to finish collecting all of the items needed to properly perform the ritual. But before we reach that point someone will need to enter the Fade with Anders and speak to Justice to confirm that he is willing to release Anders from the bond. If the spirit is not willing then the ritual will not work. I believe that you should be that person."

"Me? Why? I thought you would like the chance to speak to Justice," Max said, surprised.

"I would very much like that chance, but I believe that for the sake of the ritual it would be best for Justice to speak with someone he is familiar with, like you. I believe that you are the best one for the job," the First Enchanter replied. "What do you say Max?"

"If it is what you believe will give the ritual the best chance of success then I will gladly do it," Max agreed. "First Enchanter," she continued hesitantly, "Anders told me that he is planning on staying here, on not returning with the others to the Dragon Age. I wonder how good of an idea it is."

"Do you not want him to stay? I was under the impression that the two of you have become quite close," Mara replied with a knowing smile.

"Well, that's not it at all. I just worry about what the possible ramifications are."

"_First Enchanter, Anders is here for his appointment."_ Layla's voice came through the intercom on the First Enchanter's desk.

"One moment Layla," Mara responded. "Well Max, ultimately it is his choice, we cannot force him to return if he truly does not want to. I believe that he will do well here and I would certainly be glad to have a strong healer here. Perhaps he can even help rekindle the study of healing."

"I see. I just want to make sure that he is staying for the right reasons."

"If you are truly that concerned about it then I think you should be having this conversation with him, not me." Mara hit a button on her intercom and spoke into it, "Layla, please send Anders in. And please call Templars Kyle Imhoff and Makayla Hawley and ask them to come to my office immediately. Thank you."

Max couldn't help but feel her heart beat a little faster as Anders entered the room. He smiled at her and she felt her stomach flip. She truly did want him to stay, for the right reasons.

* * *

><p>"So Blondie, you claim you slept on the couch. Why I wonder. Do you snore, hog the blankets, drool excessively? Or does Justice rant while you're sleeping?"<p>

"I bet it's the last one, or maybe the drool," Isabela said, smirking.

They were both staring at Anders. He was trying to ignore them by reading but he hadn't turned a page in ten minutes. Their theories were somewhat entertaining, yet annoying all at the same time. He knew better than to say anything. They would just let their imaginations run wild, and they were worse together.

"She said I wasn't enough for her, she needed a hairy dwarf and a pirate wench. Insatiable, that one." Anders said, knowing he was simply adding fuel to the fire but he was unable to resist.

That is how the time passed until it was time for Anders to meet with First Enchanter Mara. He left the two of them to continue their increasingly insane speculations and headed up to the First Enchanters office. When he got there her assistant called in to see if he could go in, she was still in her meeting with Max. When he went in his eyes immediately went to Max, he couldn't repress the smile upon seeing her.

"Anders, come in, come in. I will go over what we will be doing this afternoon. You and Max will enter the Fade where she will speak with Justice to confirm that he is willing to go through with the ritual as well. If he is not willing the ritual will be extremely dangerous and at best will result in Justice continuing to remain in you and at worst could result in the destruction of both of you, so you see it is important that he be willing. Once we determine if he is willing then we will be able to move forward with the ritual," Mara explained.

Just then the door to the office opened and Kyle and Kay walked in. The Templars were clearly there in case one of the mages became possessed while in the Fade.

"Good, you're here. Are you both ready?" the First Enchanter asked.

"I'm ready," Anders said. He was apprehensive, he had tried to avoid the Fade since Justice. It was disturbing when the Spirit took control. But it had to be done if they were going to finally be separated.

"Let's get this show on the road," Max replied.

The Templars stood near the door and the three mages took their places for the ritual. The First Enchanter started the ritual and Anders felt himself slipping into the Fade and Justice taking control.

* * *

><p>Max looked around at her surroundings, she didn't think she would ever get rid of her anxiousness at being in the Fade. It was strange, and she was always tense at the greater chance of coming across a demon, which all things considered was probably a good thing. She heard a noise behind her and turned, tense, ready to defend herself. When she turned she saw Anders. He looked the way he had at the condo that Jace had taken her to, his skin cracking, blue light coming through and his eyes the same glowing blue.<p>

"It is a pleasure to finally get to speak with you. I am Justice," Anders, no Justice said.

"Hello Justice, the pleasure is all mine," Max replied. "Before we get to the primary reason that we are here, I have a question if you don't mind.

"I do not mind, what is your question?" the spirit replied

"I was curious, what do you think of the changes to the Circle?"

"I am content with the changes. Mages are no longer forced against their will into subjugation. It seems odd to me though that you would hide your abilities from the world. You should be able to live openly."

"If we were to live openly then we would likely return to a situation similar to the one that you are familiar with. To be free to live our lives as we chose we must be careful who knows what we are. People fear what they don't understand, and when people fear something they seek to control it. We just want to live, not be controlled."

"I can see the reason behind that argument. Have I sated your curiosity?" Justice asked.

"Yes, thank you. How much do you know about why we are here?" Max asked cautiously.

"You are here to determine if I am willing to participate in a ritual that will allow Anders and I to exist separately once again."

"Yes. Are you?"

"If it can be done, then I am willing. I have been in the realm of mortals too long. I recall once a conversation that Anders and I had before we joined, about the differences between spirits and demons and what demons wish of mages. I told him that I did not know what makes demons such as they are and I didn't understand their evil. Anders expressed a wish that I never came to understand it, I have come to understand it better than I had ever wished. My desire to continue to reside in a world where I did not belong lead to both Anders and I being perverted through our union. If there is some way to return to what I was, I will gladly take it."

"From what I understand of the situation, I don't believe either of you will be able to 'return to what you were' at least not completely. The ritual will separate you but the memory of the time you were together will still remain, and that will forever influence both of you. You just need to learn from the experience and not make the same mistake twice. That is all any of us can do when we make a mistake, take it as an opportunity to learn, to grow."

"You are a wise woman. I can see why your First Enchanter chose you to come here."

"Yeah well, I do what I can," Max replied jokingly.

Justice just looked at her. "Even after all this time, I still don't understand humans."

Max sighed, "It was a joke, to deflect from the compliment. Ahh, anyway, thank you. I guess we can head back now, since you have agreed to the ritual and that was all we came here to find out."

"I would like to discuss one thing with you before we return to the mortal realm."

"Yes?" Max asked confused.

"Anders cares for you a great deal. In all the years that we have been together I have never felt him react to someone the way he reacts to you. It has been interesting to experience these emotions. I am not quite sure what to make of them. From what I have seen, when things don't go well these emotions can be quite damaging. Be careful. I do not wish to see that happen to either of you."

Max was taken aback by what the spirit said. She thought for a moment on the proper way to respond. "Thank you for your concern Justice. I care about Anders a great deal as well; I don't want to hurt him."

"Yet you kept information from him, you told him that his future was known when it wasn't."

"Justice, that is why I told him that, to avoid that pain. I was afraid to open myself up to the possibility of him staying here, because of how much it would hurt me if he chose to leave. I have been left before. It is a pain I do not need to experience again. I learned from that mistake already," Max couldn't keep the sadness from her eyes as she thought about the ways she had been burned in the past.

"I see. You may wish to tell him that when you return. I think that he would appreciate that information."

"I will try."

"That is all I can truly ask for. Shall we return?"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

When they returned from the Fade it took a moment for Anders to reorient himself. Going into the Fade was never his favorite thing to do but when now that he couldn't prevent Justice from taking control he hated it. He knew that it was something that he had to do but it was extremely unnerving to be a passenger in his own body. It was ironic, Anders had spent so much time trying to gain his freedom from the Circle and now he had managed to make himself a prisoner in his own body. But now it seemed as if that was all going to change. He was finally going to be free. Free to come and go from the Circle as he pleased, free to practice his magic without fear of being dragged in by templars or of being made tranquil, free to fall in love. He hadn't had hope like this, well ever really. Anders was brought out of his thoughts by someone speaking.

"Well Max, what's the verdict?" Mara asked, she seemed anxious, excited.

"Justice said he was willing, that he has been 'in the realm of mortals too long'. He is ready to return to the Fade," Max replied.

"That's wonderful news!" the First Enchanter exclaimed. "It will take a few days to make the necessary preparations. I will inform you of a time as soon as I have everything ready."

At this the two Templars and Max moved to leave. Anders hung back for a moment and turned to Mara. "I want to thank you. This means a great deal to me, the chance to be myself again."

"Certainly, but there is really no need to thank me," the First Enchanter smiled gently.

When Anders entered the hall he saw that Max was there waiting for him. "Kay and Kyle had some meeting to go to," she told him. "Templar nonsense," she said almost flippantly as they walked towards the elevators.

"It is still odd to me, how casual you can be about Templars. That will take some getting used to."

"It's not so hard when you have nothing to fear from them. Don't get me wrong, there is the occasional asshole in their ranks, but not all mages are upstanding members of society either," she said hitting the call button for the elevator.

"Am I an upstanding member of society?" he asked, with a smirk.

"You? God, no," she said with a laugh. "You blow up houses of worship. No upstanding member of society would do that."

"So are you saying that I should be worried about the Templars, since I am not an upstanding member of society?"

"As long as you avoid blowing up any more buildings you should be fine," she replied with a smile.

Just then the elevator doors opened, they waited while a few people exited and then they were left alone on the elevator. Max hit the button for his floor and then hers. Anders was a little confused as to why they would need to go to separate floors. He decided to have a bit of fun while inquiring about it though.

Anders pushed Max against the wall of the elevator, capturing her mouth with his own. He relished in the feel of her lips, her body, against his. He kissed along her jaw to her ear, eliciting little sighs from her along the way.

"I thought we could spend some more time together, talking…or not," he breathed into her ear. He felt her shiver as his breath hit her ear.

"You are an evil man," she moaned, pulling him closer. "I have to take MJ and Chris to the airport, they are leaving today."

"I could come with you. I wouldn't mind the chance to see them off, and I have not been to this airport. I think that that is something that I would like to see," he said between kisses on her neck. He shifted his head to nibble on her ear, earning more shivers and sighs in response.

She moved her hands along his arms, moving them up to tangle her fingers in his hair. "I haven't seen them since the night of the party. They don't know about everything that has happened. I need to let them know what has been going on and where I have been all day."

Then the elevator dinged and the doors opened on Anders floor. He returned to her mouth, tasting her with a slow sensual kiss. "I guess we will have to postpone this until later then," he said as he pulled away.

"Mmmmhmmm," Max responded, keeping her eyes closed for a moment. "I should be back around 7. Why don't you meet me at my place then? Maybe we can get some dinner and talk, or not."

"That would be nice," Anders replied with a smile. He stood there as the doors to the elevator closed again. He turned and headed toward the apartment he was sharing with Varric, an extra swagger in his step. Today was a very good day.

* * *

><p>As the elevator doors closed, Max leaned on the wall of the elevator, God the things that man did to her. She loved MJ and Chris, they were family to her, but at that moment she wished desperately that they were already on their plane so that she could pursue the dirty thoughts going through her mind at that moment. As she walked in her apartment they bombarded her.<p>

"Geez Max, it's about time! Where the hell have you been? We have to be at the airport in an hour!" MJ exclaimed as Max walked in the door.

"I'm sorry; I had a meeting with the First Enchanter. There is a way to separate Anders and Justice without harming either of them! We were going through some preliminary work to see if the ritual could be completed properly."

"Wow, that's great! I bet Anders is excited, can we get moving?" Chris said.

Max laughed, "Yeah, let's head out. A lot has happened in the last day that I want to tell you guys while we are on our way, but first, how was your mini-couples get-a-way?"

They told Max about the wonderful time they had as they headed to the elevators and down to the car. Once everything was loaded in the car and they were on their way Max started to tell them about everything that had happened, about the maleficars, about Justice taking control of Anders, about him healing her, about him sleeping on her couch, about going into the Fade and speaking with Justice. Max tried to keep it as short as possible but it still took most of the car ride and some of the time that she waited with them before they had to go through security.

"So you had sex with him huh?" Chris asked with a grin.

"I tell you that I am kidnapped by maleficars and you focus on the part about me having sex! Just like a man," Max teased her friend.

"We're just happy for you. We want you to find someone who makes you happy. And we both like Anders. You said he has decided to stay here?" MJ said.

"Yeah, he says there is nothing left for him there."

"And you're here," Chris said wiggling an eyebrow suggestively.

"You're horrible," Max said with a grin.

"He clearly cares about you, and the way the two of you look at each other," MJ said.

"It's amazing you ever have clothes on," Chris said, finishing the sentence his wife started.

"Whatever," Max said, she could feel the heat in her face as she blushed.

They continued like that until it was time for MJ and Chris to go through security. Max wasn't allowed past that point so they said their goodbyes. As Max returned to her car and headed home she started to become nervous to see Anders again. There was still a lot to talk about, all the reasons that he was choosing to stay, why she hadn't told him about him disappearing from history, and the extent of their feelings for each other. She was anxious. But she also desperately wanted to see him.

When she got back to the Circle she realized she hadn't been at the airport as long as she thought she would be. She decided to go see Anders early. She didn't want to wait; she wanted to get everything straight so that things could move forward.

* * *

><p>When Anders got back Isabela, Fenris, and Merrill were there playing Wicked Grace with Varric. Apparently Aveline had opted for a quiet evening reading and Sebastian never came there.<p>

"So, did you let Max spend some more time playing with you staff?" Isabela asked suggestively after Anders joined the game.

"Please, don't," Fenris begged.

"C'mon Elf, Rivaini and I want some dirt."

"Why do you want dirt? I thought that you didn't like dirt," Merrill asked innocently.

"Not that kind of dirt Daisy," Varric said with a smile.

"You see Kitten, Anders here spent the night at dear Max's last night. So Varric and I have been trying to get him to tell us what happened half the day," Isabela added.

Just then there was a knock at the door. Fenris answered it as he had sat out that hand. It was Max; it was earlier than she had told him she would be back. Anders couldn't help but smile as she walked in. She saw Anders and smiled at him. Maker, her smile lit up the room.

"Max, we were just talking about you!"Varric said.

"I knew you couldn't resist discussing my charming wit and breathtaking beauty when I wasn't around," Max said with a smile, running her finger through her hair as if to emphasize an aspect of her beauty. She paused for a moment as if to bask in their adoration, it lasted just a moment before she laughed.

"Actually, Sweet Thing, we were trying to get Anders here to give us all the sordid details of you night of passion," Isabela purred.

"Blondie isn't cooperating though. Keeps saying some shit about sleeping on the couch," Varric groused.

"He did," Max said looking Varric in the eye.

"Bullshit." Varric and Isabela said in unison.

"What if I could prove it?" Max said leaning toward the dwarf with a glint in her eye.

"If you've got a way to prove it then I would love to see it," Varric responded.

Max pulled out her phone and slid her ringer across the screen a few times. Then she turned the screen to Varric who immediately started laughing.

"Shit Blondie, I don't think I have ever seen you look so graceful," Varric guffawed.

Isabela and Merrill both leaned over so they could get a better look at the screen.

"It looks like I was right about the drool," Isabela laughed.

"Ohh, look at the cat! Did she sleep on your head like that all night?" Merrill asked looking at Anders.

"What are you talking about? What are you showing them?" Anders asked as everyone was laughing, except Fenris who clearly had no interest in seeing what was on the screen.

Max turned the phone to show Anders the image on the screen. It was him, sprawled on her couch, his mouth open, her cat sleeping on his head. It was not the most flattering image, but he had to admit, it was pretty funny. He looked at her, "I thought you were joking about the pictures."

"Oh, I was. I just took the one cause it was too funny to pass up," she replied with a grin. Max put the phone back in her pocket.

"What pictures?" Varric asked.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about it," Max said standing up. "Oh, I would like everyone to be ready in the morning, we are taking a little field trip!" Max said with a smile.

"What is a field trip?" Fenris asked skeptically.

"You will find out tomorrow, bring weapons," she said as she turned to Anders, "You ready to go?"

"You're going? Going to take Blondie back to your place to have your way with him? To learn all you can about that famous Grey Warden stamina?" Varric asked, clearly already composing the whole thing in his head.

Max was already heading toward the door. She looked over her shoulder at the dwarf and replied with a wicked smile on her face, "Yep, that's the plan."

Varric burst out laughing, "Well I'll be a nug's uncle, I finally got a straight answer! Have fun Blondie!"

The sounds of Isabela and Varric's laughter died as the door closed behind them as they left the apartment.

"I can't believe that you said that to them. Varric and Isabela are going to run wild with that," Anders said with a mix of shock, horror, and admiration.

"They already think that is what's going to happen anyway. Why not admit it? I have always been of the opinion that if you are doing something that you don't want anyone to know about, you probably shouldn't be doing it." She paused for a moment before adding, "In most instances anyway. Besides, admitting it will throw them off, at least for a little while."

"Not as long as you think."

Anders was surprised by her openness. Before Justice he had been more open, not concerned about what other thought of what, or who, he did. Unlike her though, he had been more selfish. He hoped that once he and Justice were separated he could find a similar balance in himself.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for reading and adding this to your favs!  
><strong>


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

As Max put the key in the lock to open her apartment she suddenly became keenly aware of Anders standing behind her. She had told both the First Enchanter and Justice that she would tell him what she had been feeling but that didn't make doing it any easier. As the door shut behind them she felt Anders hands on her waist from behind. He leaned forward, pulling her close. He moved one hand up to move her hair over her shoulder giving him access to her neck. As his arms wrapped around her waist she enjoyed the feel of his lips on her neck. The combination of his lips and stubble sending chills down her back. As he kissed and sucked on her neck working his way toward her ear, she could feel her pulse start to race at the sensation.

"So you were afraid of me leaving huh?" Anders whispered in her ear.

"You heard that?" she asked, dropping her head forward a bit. She was anxious about his reaction. It seemed like a lot, a little too fast.

"When Justice is in control I am still there, I am still aware of everything that is happening; I just have no control over it. That is why it is so unnerving for me."

"Ahh," Max said in understanding.

Anders turned her around so that she was facing him. "So, I believe that you were supposed to tell me something."

"Well if you saw everything then you already know," Max said looking around the room. When she finally got the courage to look at him she saw in his eyes that he wanted her to tell him, not hear it through Justice. She sighed, "I didn't tell you that there were no accounts of what happens to you after Kirkwall because I was afraid to hope. I felt, feel, drawn to you and I didn't want to get hurt by hoping for something that I didn't think would, or could, ever actually happen. Messing with time can be very dangerous; and I didn't want to be selfish. I was also afraid of getting hurt if you didn't want to stay," she admitted looking away.

"Why would you think that I wouldn't want to stay?" he asked as he put his hand on her face, gently turning her face toward his. "I never have to worry about Templars hunting me, I can come and go as I please, and I have the attentions of a beautiful, intelligent woman who likes cats! What more could a man want?"

Just then she felt his lips on hers, forceful, as if to force all the fear and pain from her. She kissed him back fiercely, desperate to feel him there, to have him stay. She felt him pushing her back and suddenly her back was against the wall. Max reached her hands up, running her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer, loosening the band that held it pulled back from his face. She felt his body pressing against hers as their kisses changed tempo to something more sensual. His hands moved down her body to her thighs. He lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist in response. He pressed her against the wall with his body and she could feel his arousal through his pants where their hips met.

Anders moved his mouth from hers and returned to her neck, sucking and nibbling, causing her pulse to speed. He pulled back for a moment, causing her to whimper. He pulled them off the wall and carried her, still wrapped around his waist, to her bed. He let go of her thighs, and moved his hands to her waist. He ran his hands up her body, bringing her shirt with them. Max answered by removing his shirt in a similar manner. She ran her hands over his chest and abs and started to work on removing his pants. She only got so far as undoing the button when she suddenly found herself on the bed and he was on top of her. His mouth had found her ear lobe again and it was sending shivers through her body. His hands were on her pants, working to undo the button and the zipper. He pulled back again and pulled her jeans over her hips and off her body. Anders stood there for a moment, looking at her in nothing but her bra and panties. Max felt her heart flip at the smirk on his face and the hunger in his eyes.

Now he was taking his time. He put one leg between hers, easing her thighs open a bit, and settled his weight onto her. This time instead of her lips or neck he started kissing the top of her breast. His hand massaged the other, his finger occasionally rubbing her nipple through the fabric. He moved his mouth down her breast and nipped at her through her bra. He reached around her back to remove the bra, fumbled for a moment, and then stopped.

"Maker's balls, how do you work this blighted thing!" Anders exclaimed in frustration.

Max laughed, and arched her back so she could reach her arms under her body to undo the clasps on her back.

"Well I can't say that I didn't enjoy seeing that," Anders said as he watched her remove the offending garment. "Now where was I?" he asked as he returned to what he had been doing.

This time he took her nipple in his mouth, suckling and nibbling. Max squirmed under him, her breath catching with every tug. She reached out with her foot and began to rub his cock through his pants. He moaned in response and slipped his hands down to her panties. He began to rub her clit through the fabric and was rewarded with a moan in return. Max pushed her hips towards Anders hands, begging for more. She felt him push her panties aside and he ran his fingers along her lower lips.

"Oh Anders, please," she moaned, aching for some part of him to be in her.

She felt him smile around the nipple that was still in his mouth. Then as he continued to tease her by running his fingers along the outside of her, he removed his mouth from her breast and moved down her body. When he reached her sex he began to nip at her nub through the fabric of her panties. Max writhed and twisted under him, his slow torture driving her mad. Finally she felt his fingers slide under the top of her panties and she sighed in relief. Her relief was short lived as he let his fingers linger there for a few moments.

She whimpered in frustration. "God damn it Anders, are you trying to kill me?"

"I am just making sure that the removal of this article of clothing hasn't changed," he said with a chuckle.

"You know damn well it hasn't," she growled.

Anders chuckled again. "Maybe I just like making you squirm," he replied as he finally removed her panties.

"You're a fucking tea-," she was cut off as he slid his fingers into her wet folds calling forth a moan.

Anders dipped his head back down and began to suck and nip at her swollen nub. Max felt her hips buck as the sensation of his mouth and fingers in and on her sex. Her hips moved with his fingers as they slid rhythmically in and out of her while his mouth worked the sensitive bundle of nerves. She looked down at him and saw him looking back up at her. With a smile he moved to kiss her inner thigh, his thumb taking over where his mouth had been. She moaned, thoroughly enjoying what he was doing. She felt herself getting closer to climax when suddenly she felt a spark course through her. There was a pulse of energy coming from his fingers and she had never felt anything like it before.

"Oh fuck, Anders," she moaned as she climaxed, gripping the sheets and thrusting her hips into his hand.

As she panted from the orgasm she felt him pull his fingers out of her. She couldn't help the whimper of disappointment that came out. She looked at him and realized that he had taken back his hand so that he could remove the last of his clothing. He climbed back on top of her and she could fell his hard cock pressing on her thigh. He kissed her, his tongue reaching for hers. She reached her hand down and started to stroke his erection. He moaned into her mouth as she ran her fingers along his hard length.

Max shifted her body and rolled them over so that she was on top. She was still working his cock with her hand. She shifted back and sat up straddling him. She moved him so that she could sink down onto him, feeling every inch as he filled her.

"Maker, Max, you feel fucking amazing," Anders moaned as she settled around him.

She did not give him time to acclimate himself, as she immediately began to work her hips into him. She leaned back down and licked along his bottom lip, taking it into her mouth and sucking gently. She ground her hips into him, rolling them in time with him. Suddenly, Anders wrapped his arms around her and flipped them over. He pulled her down the bed as he stood next to it, somehow managing to stay inside her the entire time. He started to thrust into her, causing her to moan in response. He increased his pace and her walls tightened around him. His thrusts continued to become faster and harder until Max felt him spasm, and heard him moan, with his own release. Then slowly his thrusts slowed as he emptied himself into her. He slumped forward, his hands on the bed holding him up, and panted for a moment. Then he slid out of her and he slumped down on the bed next to her. Max shifted over to lay with him, and he moved his arm to give her room to snuggle against his side, resting her head in the sweet spot near his shoulder.

"What the hell was that thing you did with your hands?" Max asked breathily, still trying to get her breathing back to normal.

"Ohh, that, just a little spark," Anders replied with a wicked grin.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Anders woke up in the morning to the sound of rumbling in his ear. _That's not rumbling,_ he thought, _that's purring._ He opened his eyes and saw Max's cat Audrey right next to his head.

"Well good morning," he said to the cat as he reached to scratch her ears. She rubbed her head on his hand in response.

"I have never seen her take to anyone like that. I think she may like you more than she likes me," Max said. She was coming in from the bathroom; she had clearly just gotten out of the shower.

Anders could feel things stirring at the sight of her in nothing but a towel, her long dark hair dripping wet. "Don't worry sweetheart, I would much rather lavish my attentions on you," he said with a smirk.

"Mmmm, as tempting as that sounds we have plans for the day," she said turning toward her dresser.

"This field trip? What is it?" Anders asked sitting up in the bed. He was enjoying the view of her bent over looking through the dresser drawers.

Max pulled out some clothes and tossed them onto the foot of the bed. She caught Anders watching her and smiled a half smile and raised an eyebrow at him. She then bent over slowly to pick something off the floor. Anders couldn't help but watch her, his excitement growing, when suddenly she threw whatever it was at him. It was his pants.

"Maker woman, you are no fun!" he whined, pouting at her.

Max laughed, "That's me, never any fun. Now put your pants on."

Anders grabbed his pants and went into the bathroom to get cleaned up. When he came back out Max was already fully dressed. He walked up behind her and pulled her into his arms. He kissed up her neck to her ear and whispered, "I can think of plenty of fun things that we can do here today."

He heard her breath catch. "I don't doubt that you can but I have already gotten everything set up and the others will be waiting. I thought it would be nice to get everyone out of the Circle for a bit, get some exercise."

"We can get some exercise here," he said as he continued to kiss and suck on her neck.

"Look at it this way, the sooner we leave, the sooner we can come back," she purred.

With that he threw the rest of his clothes on as she laughed at him. He looked at her expectantly, ready to go. She went into her closet and came out with a staff.

"Expecting trouble?" he asked.

"Nope, but I am expecting to use this," she answered with a smile as she left the room and went to the door. Anders followed, confused.

* * *

><p>Max had woken up before Anders that morning. It was nice having him there. She looked at him for a moment. She had to stifle a laugh, he was drooling. The idea that he drooled in his sleep just seemed so hilarious to her. She got up and sent a few messages to solidify her plans for the day. She wanted to get everyone out of the Circle for a bit, and maybe get them a chance to do something more familiar to them. She had decided yesterday that it would be a good idea to take them out to the Circle's training facility.<p>

When she got out of the shower Anders was awake. He was very tempting, lying there, in her bed, naked; looking like something a desired demon would seduce you with. She somehow managed to resist the desire to jump him, but not without having a little fun with him first. She grabbed her favorite staff out of her closet before heading out the door. He looked at that a little funny and she evaded his questions about it. They rode the elevator up and stopped outside of the apartment that Isabela, Aveline, and Merrill were sharing.

"Why don't you go change into clean clothes and grab your staff and meet me in here?" she suggested.

"You're not going to come with me? What if I get lonely?" he asked, pulling her close.

"Then hurry back," she replied with a grin before giving him a kiss.

Max turned and knocked on the door as Anders headed down the hall. Aveline answered the door.

"Good morning Max," Aveline said stepping aside so that Max could come in.

"Yes it is," Max replied with a smile.

Next to the door were Aveline's sword and shield, and her armor. Kay was sitting on the couch with Merrill and Isabela. Isabela had her daggers and Merrill's staff was leaning on the couch. Just then Fenris and Sebastian came in both with their weapons and in their armor.

"What is going on? Kyle said to wear our armor and bring our weapons, is there some kind of attack?" Sebastian asked.

"No, I will explain when everyone is here."

"So, did you and Anders have a good tumble last night and maybe this morning as well?" Isabela purred. "Did he do that electricity thing he does?"

"You know about that?" Max asked surprised. He had done that with Isabela? She knew that he had a life with women before her, but Isabela?

Isabela smirked, "It's nice isn't it?"

"I really don't need to hear this," Fenris groaned.

Max felt a little nauseous at the thought of Anders being with Isabela. It just seemed so odd, and wrong, and wrong, and well, just wrong.

"Alright, Bianca is ready to go, and she is really looking forward to shooting something," Varric said as he walked in followed by Kyle and Anders

"Now can you tell us what we are doing today?" Aveline asked.

Max gave herself a mental shake, still trying to shake the idea of Anders and Isabela, so wrong, out of her head. "I thought that it would be fun to get out for a bit today and go to the Circle's off site training facility. It is where the templars train and where mages learn larger, more damaging spells. It is off site so that we don't have to worry about anything happening to this building."

"So are we going to get to kill something?" Isabela asked playing with one of her daggers.

"There may be a few things there that you can kill," Max said with a smile.

"Well then let's go!"

Max and Kyle got the group loaded into the cars and they headed out. They were pulling up to the building when Varric asked "What it Tower Fitness?" He had seen the neon sign on the building.

"That is the gym that the Circle runs. It is one of the ways that the Circle makes money. It's open to anyone, and the membership fees help to run the Circle."

"What is a gym?" Merrill asked.

"A gym is a place where people can go to exercise. They can use exercise equipment or take classes. They pay a membership fee to be able to use it. The gym is only in part of the building, the rest of the building contains our training facilities. The gym acts as a great front."

They pulled around to the other side of the building. The back of the building was relatively nondescript, although it looked very sturdy. Everyone got out of the cars and grabbed their weapons and headed toward the door. Max swiped her access card and heard the door click.

"That sounded like a lock clicking, but where is the key?" Isabela asked.

"It was a lock and this is the key," Max replied holding up the card. "It's an electronic lock, your lock picks won't work on this door."

"Ohh, I don't like that," Isabela pouted.

The group filed through the door and into a hallway and Kyle started to rattle off information about the building. "The walls here are reinforced so that the building can withstand significant spell damage. The windows are the highest hurricane force that is made. We have multiple practice rooms, a shooting range, and," They turned a corner and stood by the armory. Kyle swiped his access card and the door unlocked. And as he opened the door he finished his sentence, "we have almost every personal weapon you could imagine."

There were gasps as they entered the room. The room was filled with every king of weapons, from the broadswords, daggers, shields, staffs, and bows they were used to; to katanas, throwing stars, and scimitars; to a wide range of firearms, from pistols, to rifles, to machine guns.

Max looked around, "Well, we are definitely prepared for the zombie apocalypse."

"The zombie apocalypse?" Fenris asked, looking at Max like she was crazy.

"Yes, it is when the zombies come and take over the world. I think that it's nonsense myself, but someone actually just built a house to withstand the zombie apocalypse, so some people actually believe that nonsense," Max said, shaking her head.

Suddenly Anders stood still for a moment. He grabbed his staff and looked around. "There are darkspawn here."

"Yeah, we know," Max said nonchalantly. "We share the facility with the Wardens here in Miami. They keep darkspawn here to study and to keep their skills up."

"There are Grey Wardens here?" Anders asked.

"Yeah, there really aren't many darkspawn outside of Thedas but the Wardens keep small groups in major cities around the world just in case. The group here is really small as Florida is basically a big pile of sand, so no place for darkspawn to hide."

"Well Bianca wants to kill something. Maybe the darkspawn?" Varric asked.

"Well the darkspawn aren't ours to kill. We have some corpses though." Kyle said.

"Whatever as long as it helps Bianca quench her blood lust."

"You are a strange dwarf," Fenris said.

"And you're a broody elf," Varric replied. "Wait we weren't stating the obvious?"

Kyle led the way into the practice room. It was a large open room that had a floor that looked like hard packed dirt and the walls were concrete. The room had a magical feel to it from the wards placed around the room to protect it from magical damage and it was clearly dwarven made. The group walked through the practice room to the control room on the far side. In that room was an older man with black hair streaked with grey. In spite of his age he looked sturdy, like he could hold his own in a fight. Next to him was a younger man with mousey brown hair making fireballs dance in the air. The two men looked up as the group walked in the room.

"Well it's about damn time y'all got here," the older man drawled. "I was starting to think y'all got scairt or somethin'. I was fixin' to tell this boy to go ahead and animate those things so I could have some fun."

"For the last time Joe, I am not going to animate corpses just because you are bored," the 'boy' replied. "Forgive his manners; I'm pretty sure he was raised in a barn, by wolves. I am Samuel and this is Joe and I, for one, am very excited to get the chance to see you all in action! The companions of Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall. This should be very exciting!"

"He's a blood mage? I thought you said that it was illegal," Fenris growled reaching for his sword.

"Reformed blood mage," Samuel corrected.

"It's okay Fenris. In most cases it is illegal, but occasionally Circles will use cooperative blood mages to help the templars and other mages train how to fight blood magic. They do not have the freedoms that the rest of us do. They are always accompanied by a Templar and they need permission to leave the Tower."

"Are we gonna get this party started or what?" Joe grumbled.

"Keep your pants on. Who wants to kill some undead things first?" Max asked.

She was rewarded with a chorus of 'me' 'I do' and 'now please'. Kyle took charge to organize everyone into two groups. The first group was Aveline, Varric, Anders, and himself; while the second group was Fenris, Isabela, Merrill, and Sebastian.

"Why isn't Max in one of the groups?" Anders asked.

"Because Max likes to show off and she causes damage to the building," Kyle responded. "See that crack in the wall; she did that, through the wards that are on the building to prevent that kind of damage. So now if they do let her do anything here they make her go at the end of the day so they can get the damage fixed overnight."

Max rolled her eyes, "That only happened once and it was completely warranted given the circumstances."

"What were the circumstances?" Varric asked.

"She took a bet from one of the Wardens that she could take down an ogre and 5 hurlocks by herself," Kyle answered.

They all looked at her in disbelief. It was making Max uncomfortable. Varric was the one who broke the silence first.

"Shit, you really are related to Hawke," he said with a laugh.

"Max, that is serious. You could have been killed. Darkspawn aren't something to play with," Anders said seriously.

"I know that. I didn't go into it blindly or without an understanding of what I was up against. I have watched Wardens train many times. I have seen how darkspawn fight and I knew what I was up against. And I am well aware of my abilities. The guy was an ass. He was a misogynistic, condescending pig who thought that being a Warden made him better than everyone else. So, I proved him wrong." Max replied.

"What did you get when you won the bet?" Isabela asked with a mischievous grin.

Max grinned back, "200 anywhere push ups and he had to tell sing 'I'm a little Teapot' in front of all the Wardens that were in town that week. They were having a meeting here so there were about 30 high ranking Wardens in the city. I have it on video. It was one of the greatest things that I have ever seen in my entire life." Max could hardly keep herself from laughing at the thought of it.

"What exactly is an anywhere push up?" Fenris asked.

"It means that anywhere, and at any time I chose, I can tell him to do a push up and he has to do it," Max replied with a grin. "The bet was fair. If I had lost then I would have had to do the same number of anywhere pushups for him."

"That's brilliant!" Varric said with a laugh. "Anywhere push ups!"

"That is brilliant, but can we get to the killing things now?" Isabela asked.

Kyle led the first group into the practice room and Samuel started summoning things for them to fight.

* * *

><p><strong>AN so someone actually has built a zombie proof house. Copy and paste the link if you want to check it out.  
><strong>

**Zombie proof house- /post/4956385434/the-first-zombie-proof-house  
><strong>

**Anywhere push-ups are something some of my old co-workers used to bet each other sometimes. It is pretty funny to watch some of the random places that people come up with to make someone else do a push up!**

**And most importantly thanks to everyone reading, adding this to your favs and alerts, and the reviews!  
><strong>


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Anders couldn't believe that Max seemed so nonchalant about fighting darkspawn on her own. Did she not realize that she could have died? That she could have gotten blight sickness? She had made it into a game, a bet. Varric was right, that did sound like something Hawke would do. Although Anders had to admit, what she won did sound pretty entertaining. He wondered what this 'I'm a little teapot' song sounded like.

The first group of Anders, Aveline, Varric, and Kyle fought well together. Kyle wasn't using the gun he had used before, but a strange sword that he said was called a katana. His fighting style was unlike anything Anders had seen before; it was more fluid and controlled. It was certainly effective. When the battle was over Anders noticed that he felt a dull pull from something with the taint. It definitely wasn't darkspawn so he figured that it had to be the Wardens that trained here.

As they returned to the smaller room that he had heard the others refer to as the control room and when they entered there were two men and one woman in the room that hadn't been there before. Anders felt the pull of the taint coming from them, but it was different. It felt weaker than it ever had from other Wardens before. They were an interesting looking group, one of them was an older man, Anders had never seen a Warden that age before and he was clearly the leader. He was similar to Joe in that he was clearly a man who could still hold his own, but he also held himself in a way that commanded respect. The other man appeared to be the one who had lost the bet to Max. He was looking at everyone there as if they were beneath him and he was making a concerted effort to avoid looking at Max.

"That was awesome to watch! You all just fell into place seamlessly. It was truly impressive," the woman said.

"It wasn't that impressive," the second man said.

"I have to agree with Alexis, the stories do not do you all justice," the leader said with respect in his voice.

"You obviously haven't heard any of Varric's stories then," Aveline replied.

"Alright, are we ready for round two?" Samuel asked.

As the second group made their way into the practice room Max introduced the Grey Wardens to the group that had gone first. Their leader's name was Luis, the woman's name was Alexis, and the other man was named Cole. Cole was trying very hard to remain as far away from Max as possible, as if he was trying to ignore her very existence.

"So, I want to see this push up thing," Varric said to Max, grinning.

"Oh sure. I generally try to save them for when he's being a particularly big ass, but for you Varric I will make an exception. Cole, gimmie five push ups!" Max said, turning in her chair to face Cole and holding up her hand to illustrate how many push ups she wanted him to do.

Cole grumbled and rolled his eyes but he did the push ups. Anders noticed that Alexis was trying not to grin. There clearly was no love lost with his fellow Warden. The group grew quiet as they watched the others taking out the corpses in the other room. As they returned to the control room Cole broke his silence.

"So Anders, why did you desert the Wardens? Too much of a commitment for you? Felt trapped so you ran like you ran from your Circle?" Cole asked, disgust dripping off every word.

Anders was shocked at first, he had never met this man before, then the shock gave way to anger, and he could feel Justice rage at the insult for leaving the Wardens. The truth was that the Wardens couldn't make peace with harboring an abomination. It was either run or die.

"25 push ups Cole, now," Max said, her voice was hard. She was still in her seat but she was staring down the Warden across the room.

"I will not, he abandoned his duty, he doesn't deserve any respect for that," Cole answered, looking at Max for the first time that Anders had seen.

"50," Max said, standing this time. "And fair warning, I still have over 150 left that you owe me, I will make you do them all right now if you push it."

It was the first time he saw any resemblance to Fenris in her. Her hard glare was something that looked very similar to the elf's; as Anders had good cause to know having been on the receiving end of that glare more than once.

"Cole, step outside," Luis said to the younger man, preventing him from responding to Max's threat.

Cole turned, looking at Luis with shock, then anger, then grudging acceptance. "Yes Commander," he said, shooting one last glare at Max before he left.

Luis turned to Anders, "I apologize for Cole. He forgets his manners sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Alexis asked, looking at her commander.

"He has manners?" Max asked sarcastically, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Ladies," Luis said in a tone that said he thought they had gone too far. "He takes being a Warden very seriously," he finished.

"I can understand that. I got used to people condemning my decisions long ago," Anders replied. He didn't like Cole, but Luis seemed a decent enough fellow.

"So are we going to get to see our girl Max here in action today?" Isabela asked, changing the subject.

"You good for one more round Samuel?" Max asked.

"For you Max, certainly," Samuel replied.

"Max, try not to bring the building down around our head please," Kyle pleaded.

"There you go, ruining my fun," Max said sticking her tongue out at him as she made her way into the practice room.

Anders watched as Max pulled out her staff and readied herself for the attack. Samuel cut his arms and worked the spell to summon corpses for her to battle. Anders watched as the corpses came to life and he realized that the blood mage had summoned the same number of corpses for Max alone as he had for each of the two groups.

"What are you doing summoning all those corpses for her by herself?" Anders exclaimed moving toward the door to go help her in the other room.

Kyle blocked the door. "She can handle it. Trust us, and her."

Anders stood back a bit and watched. He kept himself prepared to cast a healing spell quickly in case she needed it. He watched as she cast spells around herself. She hadn't killed any of the corpses yet, it almost looked as if she was herding them into the same area. She cast two lines of fire along the ground, corralling the corpses in one area.

"Shit," Kyle swore and ran for the door as Max shifted her grasp on her staff so she was holding it closer to one end. "Max don't!" Kyle yelled as she swung the staff over her head and swung it to the ground like a hammer. As the end of her staff hit the ground, the ground erupted. A large crack formed in the ground in a rough line extending from the end of her staff, causing corpses to go flying. The lights in the room flickered and Anders could hear a chorus of shock and profanity from around the room.

"Fucking shit Max! Why did you do that?" Kyle yelled at her.

Max looked at Kyle and smiled. "What?" she asked innocently.

"You just can't be in here without breaking something, can you?" he asked resignedly.

"The building is still standing," she replied with a grin. "They can fill in the hole."

"Other people have to use this room today."

"It's fine Kyle, it will give us a chance to train while being concerned with the terrain," Luis said with a smile.

Kyle groaned as Max came back into the control room. "If you are done trying to destroy the building, and my nerves, we should probably head back soon. The Wardens have this room reserved for the rest of the day."

They said their goodbyes to the two Wardens and Joe and Samuel. Once that was done the group made their way back out toward the cars.

As the group made their way out to where the cars were Anders saw someone standing by Max's car, it was Cole.

"You fucking bitch, you made me look bad in front of my commander," he raged stepping toward Max.

Anders felt the others around him tense, and he could feel the lighting dancing at his own fingertips, just waiting to be released on this bloody fool. Max stood her ground and looked him straight in the eye.

"Trust me; you do not need my help to look bad. You are fully capable of doing that all by yourself," Max replied.

"Cunt," he spat. "I challenge you to a duel! You and me, if you're not scared."

"Really, a duel? No one duels anymore."

"Well that's disappointing," Isabela pouted. "I will duel him for you if you want," she said, visibly perking up at the idea.

"You like making bets, double or nothing, if you face me," Cole challenged.

"No, my father always told me never to make a bet you know you can't lose. This would qualify," Max replied flatly.

Just then the door to the building opened, interrupting Cole's retort. "Cole, Luis said to get in here now!" Alexis called.

Cole glared daggers at Max, and spared a glare for Anders, before he stalked inside.

"Shit Max, so you actually are related to the Elf. I was starting to have trouble believing it, but that glare you gave Cole easily compared to anything I saw him give to, well just about anyone," Varric said to Max as they were getting in her car.

"He is just such a condescending ass. It drives me nuts. And I really can't stand it when he attacks anyone I care about," Max replied.

"So you care about Blondie, huh?" Varric asked. Anders could practically see the grin on the dwarfs face.

"Well he's no paragon of harry-chested manliness like you Varric, but I can't seem to help myself in spite of it," Max said with a laugh.

Anders grinned to himself. He was a little surprised at how happy it made him to hear her say that she cared for him. Most anyone else would have probably said that it was painfully obvious, but it was still good to hear. Anders still found it hard to let his guard down, in that way. When he was in the Circle no one let things get too serious for fear of giving the Templars more power and then when he merged with Justice he didn't want to open up to the chance of hurting someone.

"He's so angry he makes the Elf look like a ray of sunshine," Varric said. , pulling Anders from his thoughts.

"Funny," Fenris said flatly.

"Let's go before he decides to do something really stupid, like try to drink Isabela under the table," Max said.

"I have known dwarves that couldn't do that," Varric said with a laugh.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I just wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays; which ever you may celebrate this time of year I hope that it is wonderful! **


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Anders didn't see much of Max over the next two weeks. When he did it was in the library. She was typically surrounded by papers and her laptop. Whenever he stopped to say hi she would start ranting about finals or papers involving strange words like ANCOVA or coastal trapped Kelvin waves. He had no idea what any of those things were and he got the distinct impression that Max was not in a state to explain them to him.

During that time he and the other mages made some real progress in the search for a way to return everyone to the Dragon Age. Ethan found an old text that documented a spell for time travel. It would require a great deal of power. He was a bit concerned about the amount of power it would take to send six people back that far but when they had taken the information to the First Enchanter she said she had a few ideas on how they could make it work.

Anders found himself getting more anxious as the weeks passed, however. Not that he would admit it out loud, but that probably had more to do with spending less time with Max than anything else. He missed her. Being around her made him feel more relaxed and alive than he had in years. He didn't want to admit how much he missed spending time with her, not that that stopped Varric and Isabela from cracking jokes and trying to see who could come up with the best innuendoes.

One afternoon Anders was in the apartment he shared with Varric, splitting his attention between the book he was reading and watching Varric and Isabela show Merrill some of the ways that she could try to cheat at cards. Nick, Caleb and Kay were also there.

"Oh! I did it!" Merrill squealed after successfully performing one of the tricks they were teaching her.

"Good job Kitten, but you don't want to tell everyone when you cheat, that defeats the purpose," Isabela replied while Varric laughed.

"Oh, right, I forgot," Merrill said sheepishly.

"It's fine Daisy, just try to keep a straight face or everyone will know and then they will either call you out for cheating or they will just refuse to play cards with you anymore."

"Oh, I will try my best," Merrill said seriously.

Anders was pretty sure that Merrill's best would still be able to be spotted from across a room. Just then there knock at the door. Isabela went to answer the door.

"Freedom!" Max yelled as she walked in the door, her hands in the air. She walked over to the couch where Anders was sitting and flopped, there really was no other way to describe it, down. "Finals are done! Papers are done! And I am free from school, for a few weeks anyway," Max said triumphantly.

"Thank the Maker your back! Blondie was getting moody again, I was starting to worry that he was going to blow up another building," Varric said with a grin.

"Awe, did you miss me?" Max asked leaning closer to Anders, turning her head so she was looking up at him. Anders felt his heart jump.

"Maker, yes! Do you have any idea what I have had to suffer with these last weeks? Isabela staring at Varric's chest hair while Varric fondles Bianca. It was like watching a very disturbing threesome," Anders said with a smirk.

"It just sounds like you're jealous Blondie. I can't help it if the ladies can't resist the chest hair."

"Varric knows that he is a paragon of manliness that no woman can resist. And I have been trying to get my hands on Bianca for years," Isabela said with a smirk.

Max shook her head. "You people really are disturbed, you know that," she said with a smile.

"Apparently associating with crazy runs in your family," Varric replied.

"Come on Varric, it's not just associating with crazy that runs in my family. Crazy runs in my family!"

"Speaking of your family aren't they coming to town in a few days?" Caleb asked Max.

"Yep! I'm excited!" Max said her face lighting up.

"Here that Blondie! You're going to get to meet the family!" Varric said laughing.

"Your parents are coming here?" Anders asked Max.

"My Dad's not coming. My parents got divorced when I was 15. My Mom is coming with my Step-Dad; my aunt, uncle and their grand-daughter."

"So this is the mage side of your family?"

"Yep. Which reminds me I have to tell Fenris. They are looking forward to meeting him."

"Just him?" Anders asked.

"Awe, Blondie is feeling left out," Varric said chuckling.

"What? No," Anders said trying to recover himself.

Max laughed. "They want to meet everyone, but you can't blame them for being most interested in their actual family." Max stood up and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Anders asked. She had just gotten there, why would she leave already.

Max turned slightly and looked at Anders. "To go talk to Fenris. You are welcome to come. I mean I know how much you two loooove each other," she said sarcastically.

It was a testament to how much Anders had actually missed being around Max that he was actually considering going with her. Then he remembered that Fenris was likely in the apartment that he was sharing with Sebastian and that was a combination of people that Anders did not need to be around.

"Uh, no. I think I will just wait here," Anders said.

Max shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said with a smile.

"Please hurry back! I don't know how much more of Blondie's mopping I can stand!" Varric said as she headed out the door.

Anders just rolled his eyes and returned to the book he was reading.

* * *

><p>Fenris' reaction to meeting more of his descendants was interesting. He seemed excited, anxious, nervous, and almost scared all at the same time. He said he wanted some time to himself, she thought maybe to settle his emotions at the situation. He was a very closed person, being emotional would not be a good thing as a slave after all. Max suspected that emotional things were not something he was very good at. He did say that he was looking forward to meeting them though. Max thought that it could be an interesting meeting as both her mother and aunt were mages. Her aunt and uncles granddaughter may be a mage, they didn't know yet. So it was possible that all of the descendents that Fenris would be meeting would all be mages.<p>

As Max was walking back to Anders' apartment she got an e-mail on her phone from the First Enchanter. Mara wanted to see her first thing in the morning to discuss some things. Max set an alarm on her phone so that she wouldn't forget. When she got back to the apartment she just let herself in this time instead of knocking. She stood just inside the doorway for a minute staring at the scene in front of her. Aveline and Kyle had both joined the group while she was gone and they were no longer playing cards. Everyone was in the living room and Merrill and Caleb were standing in front of the television jumping around. Max looked at the TV screen and realized that someone had brought over an Xbox and kinect and they were playing kinect sports. They were playing volleyball as a team against the computer, and losing. Merrill seemed to be tripping herself up a bit and she would be just a moment too late.

"You can do this Kitten. You manage to not trip over yourself in battle," Isabela said trying to encourage the elf.

Max made her way into the room and realized that there wasn't really anywhere left to sit so she perched herself on the arm of the couch next to where Anders was sitting.

"You're back," he said with a smile. "Have you seen this before? It is incredible," He said in awe of the kinect.

"Yeah, I have seen is before. It is pretty awesome," Max said with a smile. "Oh," she said as Anders reached over and pulled her from the armrest into his lap.

"I've missed you," Anders whispered into her ear. His breath on her skin sending shivers down her spine.

"I missed you too," she said back with a smile.

Just then the room erupted into cheers. It seemed that Merrill managed to get the game winning point and everyone was cheering, equally from shock and joy. Merrill looked overwhelmed by the outburst. Caleb grabbed her and swung her around in celebration.

"Oh Goodness. Did I do something right?" Merrill said in confusion.

"You won Merrill," Aveline said in shock.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Merrill said as Caleb put her down. "Can someone else go now?"

Everyone laughed.

"Sure thing Kitten. Aveline and I can give it a go. Come on Big Girl," Isabela said grabbing Aveline by the hand and pulling her up.

"What if I don't want to 'give it a go', Isabela?" Aveline said. Her voice was more resigned than frustrated.

"Aww, come on Big Girl. It'll be fun," Isabela said while Caleb got the game set up for them.

"So how was your chat with the Elf?" Varric asked Max. He was sitting on the couch next to Anders.

"It was interesting. I think he's kind of terrified at the idea actually. I think that he's anxious about the fact that it's pretty much all of the mages in the family."

"Really? Just the mages?" Varric asked.

"Yeah, it's not really on purpose. My mother is the oldest of four, two boys and two girls. My uncles aren't mages, my mother and aunt are. Just like my sister is not a mage while I am." Max said.

"I'm sure the Elf is thrilled at the idea of spending time with so many mages that he helped bring into the world," Varric said with a laugh.

"Bloody hypocrite," Anders grumbled.

"Hey," Max said sharply.

"I'm sorry but he is. He spends years raging against all mages while ending up in a relationship with an apostate. Then he ends up having a family of mages. And not only that but they are more powerful mages because of the lyrium in **his** skin!" Anders said angrily.

Max looked at him and cocked her head to the side. "Would you prefer that he hadn't?" she asked with a one eyebrow raised.

"Watch yourself Blondie. I believe that you may be getting into trouble," Varric said with a smile.

Max's eyes flicked toward Varric just long enough to take in the look of amusement on his face at the situation. Max couldn't stop the smirk that appeared on her face in response to Varric's amusement.

"Uh, I didn't mean it like that," Anders stammered trying to cover up his misstep.

"I'm sure," Max said, more amused than anything else at this point.

"So Max, are they as powerful as you are? You mother and aunt?" Varric asked.

"Yeah. I'm willing to bet that the First Enchanter is going to ask them if they will help in the ritual to send you all back home. It is going to take a lot to send that many people back so using the most powerful mages that you can get will help ensure that everything goes the way that it should."

"Do we really have to see these? Isn't there some way to not show them?" Aveline's complaint drew their attention.

Max looked up and realized that the game was over and she was talking about the pictures that were taken by the kinect while they were playing.

"I just wish there was some way that I could take one home with me. I could use those to get myself out of a great deal of trouble," Isabela said with a laugh.

"And you need all the help you can get with that Rivaini," Varric said.

The rest of the evening passed in much the same way. Eventually Fenris and Sebastian even came by and joined in the fun. Everyone took turns playing the kinect games. There was a lot of smack talking and making fun of the ridiculous pictures. It was a fun evening for everyone there. It seemed as if everyone just wanted to enjoy themselves for the night. They all knew that they would only be there for a short while longer so they were just trying to enjoy this while they could.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope everyone who reads this and celebrates Christmas had a wonderful day yesterday! To those whose holiday season is still not done I hope it is wonderful!**

**I also want to say thanks to the new reviews! They were a nice early Christmas present for me!  
><strong>


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Eventually the evening wore down and everyone headed 'home' for the night. Anders saw Max starting to say her goodnights to those who were still there. As she finished up with everyone else she made her way to where Anders was standing in the kitchen. He had made sure to position himself near the door.

"You do know that I don't intend on letting you leave without me?" Anders asked quietly.

"Who said I was going to?" Max said seductively. There was a mischievous glint in her green eyes.

"Well then; goodnight everyone," Anders called into the other room.

"Have fun Blondie," Varric said with a laugh.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Isabela added.

"There are things you wouldn't do?" Max replied laughing.

"Oh, right," Isabela said, chuckling.

Anders and Max left and made their way to the elevators. Anders barely waited for the elevator doors to close before grabbing Max, kissing her passionately. She wrapped her arms around him in response, running her fingers through his hair loosening his pony tail.

"Mmm, I have missed you," Anders breathed into her neck as he nipped and sucked toward her collar bone.

"I feel the same way," Max replied, her breath catching, his mouth had moved its way back up her neck and he nibbled on her ear lobe.

Just then the elevator doors opened to her floor. When they got to her door Max pulled out her keys to unlock the door. Anders had his arms around her waist and his mouth was still working on her neck. He felt her shiver as he nibbled and sucked. When she got the door open he lifted her over his shoulder. She bit off an oath as he did and he patted her ass in response. He kicked the door closed behind him and made a beeline for the bedroom. Once there he flung her onto the bed causing her cat to jump off from where she had been laying on it. He stood there watching Max for a moment. She stared back at him, amusement and desire in her eyes.

"That wasn't funny," she said with a smile as she raised one eyebrow.

"Then why are you smiling?" he replied with a smirk.

Anders quickly removed his shirt and moved toward the bed. He saw her eying him hungrily as he got closer. His own arousal was straining in his pants as he joined her on the bed. He grabbed her hips and slid his hands up her body bringing her shirt up with them. He pulled the shirt over her head and flung it across the room. He took a moment to take in her curves, the way the swell of her breasts moved with every breath, the curve of her hips, the flat of her stomach. As he looked at her he thought about how he felt far more than just lust for this woman. She was beautiful, smart and made him feel freer than he had ever felt.

He dipped his head down and kissed and licked a path across her breast. He could almost hear her heart racing at his touch. His hands moved down her body and undid the button and zipper of her jeans. He slid his hand into her pants but over her panties and gently slid his fingers along her sex. She shifted and moaned at his touch. He could feel the heat and wetness through her panties. He rubbed his fingers in circles around the sensitive bundle of nerves. Anders erection twitched as Max pushed her hips into his hand. He felt the fabric of her jeans shift. He pulled his head up from where he had been lavishing her breasts and saw she was pushing her pants down to give him greater access.

He shifted his hands and pulled her pants off himself. He looked down at her in just her bra and panties. They were black and lacy and the contrast of the dark fabric on her pale skin was alluring. Then she reached down and started to remove his pants. Her hand brushed across his erection and it throbbed in response. She sat up and pulled down his pants and underwear in one swift motion. Once free she grabbed onto his hard shaft and started to stroke up and down. Anders groaned as Max's grip shifted. She leaned her head over and began to bite and suck his nipple as she massaged his cock. Anders moaned again in response.

Then she shifted again, she moved her hand and grabbed him, pushing him down on the bed she straddled him quickly. She looked at him with a smirk on her face. She leaned forward looking him in the eyes and ground her hips into his. Her hair was brushing his face and he could feel her heat and wetness on his cock through her panties. He reached up with one hand and pulled her down so he could kiss her hungrily. Her lips parted and his tongue snaked into her waiting mouth. His other hand was toying with her panties. He slid his finger around the edge of her panties around her leg. He moved his hand between her legs and moved the panties aside so he could slide his fingers into her core. She moaned into his mouth in response. She nibbled and sucked on his lip as they kissed.

As they continued to kiss passionately, Anders moved his fingers rhythmically in and out of her. He shifted his thumb and sent small pulses of electricity into the most sensitive areas of her body. She jerked on top of him and moaned. After a moment Max shifted off of Anders. She removed her panties quickly and returned to her position straddling him. Anders reached around her back to remove her bra. Once that was finally gone he started to massage her breasts occasionally tweaking her nipples. She ground her hips onto his throbbing erection in response.

She shifted her weight and grabbed his cock as if to steady it so she could sink onto him. Suddenly Anders' penis felt extremely cold. He looked down and realized that she had cast a spell so his cock was now covered in a layer of ice. He looked in her eyes and she grinned. He watched as her expression changed as she sunk down onto him. The sensation of her heat around him and the ice from her spell was deliciously contradictory. He grabbed her hips encouraging her to move faster. Their pace quickly increased as they both came closer to their release. Max leaned down to kiss Anders and he took advantage of the opportunity to roll over so he was on top, maintaining their connection the whole time. Once in position Anders began to thrust into Max with greater force and speed, causing her to cry out with each thrust. As she reached her climax she threw her head back with a final cry and he felt her walls squeeze around him, melting the last of the ice. He followed her over the edge a few short moments later.

* * *

><p>When Max woke up the next morning she realized that she was alone in the bed. She listened and suddenly heard a pan bang and a muffled oath coming from her kitchen. She got up and grabbed the black silk robe that she had hanging on her head board. She heard another bang as she made her way to the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway and stood there for a moment. Anders was standing there with his back to her, wearing nothing but his pants. It looked almost as if he had emptied her entire fridge onto the kitchen counter and it looked like the eggs on the stove were about 30 seconds from burning. She grabbed the pan and moved it to the next burner over, which was off.<p>

"What are you doing to my kitchen? It looks like my fridge threw up," Max said trying to keep a straight face.

Anders turned around at the sound of her voice. As sheepish grin spread across his face when he saw her.

"Good morning sweetheart. I was making you breakfast," he said proudly.

"I think burning me breakfast would be a more accurate statement," Max said holding up the pan with eggs in it to illustrate her point.

"Maker's balls, well that's ruined. I can make some more," Anders suggested.

"That's okay dear. I think I just want a bagel. I have to meet with First Enchanter Mara this morning. She sent me an e-mail last night saying she needed to see me a.s.a.p.," Max said as she pulled out a bagel and put it in the toaster.

"Well that's disappointing. I was looking forward to monopolizing your time today," he said with a smirk. He pulled her into his arms and leaned down to kiss her.

"Mm, you are trying to distract me ser," Max mumbled into his mouth.

"Mm-hm; is it working?" he asked, as he slipped his hands under her robe and cupped her bottom.

Just then her bagel popped up in the toaster. "Saved by the toaster," Max said as she turned to grab a plate and pulled the bagel out of the toaster.

"It is only a temporary reprieve for you my dear," Anders replied returning to rummaging in her fridge.

"It had better be," she said smiling at him over her shoulder.

Max put some cream cheese on her bagel and grabbed a glass of water. She sat on her couch and proceeded to watch as Anders finished piling food on a plate, making a bigger mess than he already had.

"What does Mara want to talk to you about?" he asked joining her on the couch.

"I'm not sure. Probably the ritual that will send everyone back, maybe the ritual to separate you and Justice, maybe both," she replied.

They were quiet for a few minutes, as they ate.

"So, you have family coming to visit," Anders said tentatively.

"Yep. They will be here in a few days and they will be staying for about a week. Why, ya nervous?" Max said teasingly.

"Uh, no. Well, maybe," Anders said thoughtfully. "I have never met the family of someone I was involved with before. It's not like anyone in the Circle ever saw their families again, and besides, any relationships were primarily physical, no one wanted to give the Templars anymore power over them by having something they couldn't stand to lose. During my escapes I never stayed anywhere long enough until Kirkwall and then, well there was Justice. I have never had the freedom to allow myself to develop a relationship like that before."

Anders continued eating after that and Max just watched him for a moment, thinking about what he had said. She thought that it was sad that he, and other mages, hadn't had that freedom. But then, many people didn't even now. Of course now people usually kept themselves from having that freedom, as a result of fear; fear of being hurt, fear of being left. Then, suddenly, Max realized something.

"So, what is this then?" Max asked.

They had not had 'the talk,' not defined what this was between them. Max knew that he had decided to stay here and she knew she felt more than just a 'primarily physical' thing; she was not really the type for that. She thought that it was more for him too, but this had all happened pretty quickly and they had never discussed relationships like that before. Anders stopped eating and looked at her for a moment.

"This is more, more than anything I have had before. When I am with you I feel more myself, more free, than I have ever felt," he looked down for a moment. When he looked back up he pushed some of the hair from Max's eyes, "I love you."

Max felt her heart pounding as he spoke. She looked in his soft brown eyes and saw he meant every word. His hand lingered in her hair.

"I love you too" she said.

It was really that simple. He leaned down and kissed her, slow and sweet. She shifted closer to him to feel more of his body against hers. Suddenly a noise made them both jump slightly. It was the alarm on her phone, reminding her that she had to meet with First Enchanter Mara as soon as possible.

"Crap," Max said turning off the alarm.

"What? What was that for?" Anders asked as she cleaned up her dishes from her breakfast.

"I gotta go meet with Mara, remember," Max replied.

"Oh, right," he sighed.

"I gotta go take a shower," she said as a grin slid across her face. "Wanna join me?" she asked suggestively.

Anders quickly finished a few more bites of his food and followed her into the shower. At least Max would be in a good mood when she got to the First Enchanter's office.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

When Max left for her meeting Anders stayed behind to clean the mess he had made in her kitchen. She told him that she would meet him back at the apartment he shared with Varric since he had to change his clothes. She was a little worried about trusting him to clean her kitchen, she was kind of particular about where things went but he wanted to do it and she didn't have time.

Max mused about what had happened that morning between her and Anders. She almost felt like she should pinch herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. She felt like she was in some crazy story. Now, she just had to figure out how to explain it to her family.

When she got close to the First Enchanter's office she saw that someone else was sitting at Layla's desk. Max thought she had seen the guy before but she couldn't place him.

"Hello, you're Max right? Mara said to send you in as soon as you got here," the guy said.

"Uh, thanks. Not to be rude but, where's Layla?" Max asked.

"Oh, right," he laughed. "She's not feeling well so she took the day off. I'm John, I'm just filling in."

"Oh, nice to meet you. I hope Layla's okay," Max replied. She was a little concerned; Layla was the type that never seemed to get sick.

"It's my understanding that she is fine, just a little under the weather."

"Well that's good," Max said heading into Mara's office.

"Max, glad you're here. I have a few things I would like to talk to you about," Mara greeted her warmly as she came in.

She gestured to one of the chairs in the less formal sitting area that she had set up in her office. Mara tried to make meetings in her office comfortable. Max thought it was partially because she wanted people at ease and partially because she wanted to be able to catch people off guard.

"What would you like to discuss?" Max asked settling into one of the chairs.

"Well first I wanted to make sure you knew that they found away to return the Kirkwaller's home."

Max nodded indicating she did.

"Good," Mara continued. "Have you has a chance to look at the ritual?"

"I have, it looks like it will take quite a bit of power to send them all back," Max said.

"Yes, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Your mother and aunt will be here visiting in a few days won't they?" the First Enchanter asked.

Max had already figured out where this was going before she got there. "Yes, and I have already spoken to my mom about possibly helping with the ritual while they are here. My mom said she would gladly help and she is going to talk to my aunt about it. I'm sure she will be willing to help as well. We do have a vested interest in them returning after all."

Mara smiled, "That is true. It will be an honor to have their help in this. The second thing I wanted to talk to you about was the ritual to separate Anders and Justice; I have gathered everything necessary so we can perform it at anytime. I was hoping that it could wait until after the ritual to send the others back though. Both rituals will be consuming to those involved and I think that it would be beneficial to make sure the others are returned to ensure history play out the way it is supposed to."

Max thought about it for a moment. "I will talk to him about it but it sounds reasonable. I'm sure he will understand."

Mara smiled, "That's good. I hope he does. I would like to do the ritual as soon as possible but I believe that it is more important to get the others returned where they belong first."

"Is there any more information on the blood mages that brought them all here? Have you found the leak?"

Mara sighed, "Unfortunately we have not been able to make much headway. It is possible that they will try something soon since it is pretty well known through the Circle that we have found a way to return them to the Dragon Age. They may still want to them for whatever reason it is that they summoned them here in the first place."

"Well we will have to stay on our guard then. I will warn them all to be wary about anyone they are unfamiliar with, even in the tower since we know there's a leak but we don't know who it is."

"That sounds like a good idea," Mara said leaning back in her chair. "So now that that's done, how did your semester go at school?"

Max settled into her own chair while the two women sat and chatted for a while.

* * *

><p>Anders couldn't believe how things had been going for him recently. His life had certainly been strange since his last escape from the Circle but this he could have never imagined. He finally had the chance to be free, truly free. He was somewhat surprised that Justice seemed to be going along with all of this so well. No talk of helping the plight of others. No encouragement to return to continue the fight to free mages. Maybe he knew that they wouldn't last long if they returned, someone would kill him, or turn him in to the Chantry. Maybe seeing that mages get freedom sated him. Or maybe it was because the anger Anders held on to was dissipating. Whatever the reason he was grateful for it.<p>

Anders finished cleaning up the mess in Max's kitchen and headed back upstairs so he could change his clothes. He was surprised to see a familiar face when he got off the elevator.

"Layla, right?" he said to the young woman as he approached.

She turned toward him. He thought he saw an odd expression on her face for the briefest moment before it changed to a smile. He must have been imagining things. Oddly Justice seemed uneasy.

"Hi, Anders, I was actually just coming to find you. The First Enchanter would like to see you, and Fenris. She sent me down to find you both."

"Why just the two of us? Does this have something to do with Max's family visiting?" Anders asked.

"Yes, it does. I'm not sure of the details though. Why don't we grab Fenris and head up? We don't want to keep her waiting," she replied enthusiastically.

It took a few minutes to talk Fenris into coming but eventually they were waiting for the elevator. Just as the doors were about to close a man appeared and joined them on the elevator. He was wearing a hat low so Anders couldn't really see his face.

Then suddenly a few things happened very quickly. Anders noticed that the button Layla pushed for the elevator was not for the floor that the First Enchanters office was on. Just as he was about to say something he felt his mana drain and he felt dizzy. He saw Fenris' marking flash out of the corner of his eye and he felt Justice surge forward but before the spirit could take control Anders took a blow to the head and everything went black.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great time last night!**

**I'm sorry this one is so short but it was the right place to stop. I will post again soon to make up for it!**

**Thanks again to everyone who reads, follows, and reviews this!  
><strong>


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Anders woke up and his head was splitting. He tried to cast a healing spell on himself and found that only made his head hurt more. He slowly lifted his head to see where he was. He was in a cell of some kind. Part of his mind immediately started to rage at the idea of being caged again. He could feel Justice straining but it was as if there was a wall separating them, the connection was foggy.

Anders forced himself to breath evenly; he would never be able to form a plan to escape if he didn't remain calm. He could see runes carved into the walls and floors to prevent magic. He saw Fenris lying on the floor with an ugly gash in his head, his hair stained red from the blood. His arms were bound behind him at the elbows and wrists and his ankles were bound together as well. This prompted Anders to test his own arms and legs, he found that his arms were bound behind him at the wrists and his legs were free. Apparently they didn't think he was as much of a threat without magic.

Fenris stirred and groaned. He opened his eyes and as soon as he saw Anders they narrowed.

"This is your fault mage," he spat.

"How is this my fault? I'm trapped here too!" Anders shot back.

"I had never seen that woman before, and she obviously had something to do with this. You trusted her, so therefore this is your fault."

"So it's my fault that I trusted the assistant to the First Enchanter. Max knew and trusted her, how should I know any differently? You wouldn't have acted any differently if you had spent the time with her that I had," Anders spat back. Bloody Elf.

"Would you two _shut up_!" a man growled as he came into view of the cell. It was the Grey Warden they had seen before, the angry one who challenged Max to a duel, Cole.

"What do you want with us? Why are we here?" Anders asked. "Why is a Warden taking us prisoner?"

"I'm just here to help a lady friend," Cole sneered. "I'm supposed to make sure you two don't die but it you don't shut the fuck up I may not be able to keep that promise."

"I don't care what you do with the abomination but if you let me out of here I may consider not ripping your heart out of your chest," Fenris growled.

"Yes, because that's the way to get him to let you out, threaten him," Anders said rolling his eyes.

"Oh my _God_ would you two shut up before I knock you both out again," Cole shouted.

"Please not so loud, I have a headache," Anders quipped.

"Now, now Cole, we wouldn't want our guests to feel any less comfortable than necessary," a woman's voice purred.

The voice was coming from just out of Anders site, from where Cole had come from. The woman stepped into view and Anders recognized Layla again.

"So you're the leak. Max had mentioned that someone was leaking information to the group of blood mages that brought us here. Why are you doing this? You had a good position and more freedoms than I have ever seen, why?" Anders asked.

"I told you, mages would abuse freedom and try to take more power," Fenris said smugly.

"Oh come off it," Anders snapped. "After everything you have seen over the past few weeks, after all the time you have been with Hawke and you still believe that bullshit! They are the few, not the majority! And yet you would still condemn us all!"

Fenris opened his mouth to retaliate when there was a bang on the bars.

"Quiet! Now is the time to listen to me," Layla said sharply. "I don't know why you are here now. The plan for why you were originally summoned here was shot to hell when the bitch Max showed up in the first place. Jace is curious about the two of you though. He wants to try some things with the both of you. I just stopped by to make sure that the two of you were still alive. You are no use to us dead, at least not yet anyway. Come on Cole."

And with that they both left. Anders suspected that Cole was just being used, he had to have templar training, Anders had been on the receiving end of a smite often enough to know what it felt like, and that was definitely what happened in the elevator. Fenris was glaring at him with a vengeance. Anders leaned back against the cold wall of the cell, the coolness easing the throbbing in his head. He had to find a way out of this. He would not be caged again.

* * *

><p>Max left the First Enchanter's office feeling great. Things were lining up well. They had worked out a time line to return everyone to their time and to separate Anders and Justice. Mara had even told Max some of the ideas she had for what Anders could do since he was staying. Max couldn't wait to talk to him about it and see what he wanted to do.<p>

She didn't even bother knocking when she got to the apartment Anders and Varric were in. Isabela and Merrill were there, as usual, and Aveline was there as well. The three women and Varric were playing cards, but Max didn't see Anders.

"Hey Max, we were just about to start a new game, care to join us?" Isabela asked.

"Where's Blondie? Did you leave him tied to your bed? You know he doesn't take being locked up well," Varric said with a laugh.

Max was confused, "He's not here? He should have been back here a while ago."

"I haven't seen him since you two left last night. I just figured he was with you," Varric said.

"I left him in my apartment a few hours ago; I had a meeting with the First Enchanter. He said he was coming here to change his clothes," Max said. She was starting to worry, where was he.

"Maybe he's still there, waiting to surprise you," Isabela purred.

"Maybe," Max said skeptically. "I'm gonna go check but we agreed to meet here."

Max headed back down to her apartment. When she got there she looked around, she saw that her kitchen had been cleaned but Anders wasn't there. Now she was starting to really worry. She headed back to the apartment hoping that maybe they just passed each other in different elevators or something. When she got back he still wasn't there.

"Something is wrong," Max said.

"Don't jump to conclusions; I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation," Varric said trying to calm Max.

"No Varric, there is someone here in the Circle working with the blood mage who brought you all here. I'm going to go check on Fenris and Sebastian and then I'm making some phone calls," Max said.

She knocked on the door to the apartment the Fenris and Sebastian were sharing. After a few moments Sebastian answered the door.

"Hello Max, how are you today?" he said pleasantly.

"Um, I'm ok, is Fenris here?" she asked tentatively.

"No, he left a while ago with Anders and some young woman. She said something about a meeting with the First Enchanter," he said.

"Anders was here? And they left with this woman? What did she look like?" Max asked anxiously.

"She was petite with short brown hair," Sebastian said, he looked a little confused.

Max thought for a moment. That description could match Layla but she didn't work today. Max decided to call the First Enchanter to see if she did actually want a meeting with them. She thanked Sebastian and headed back to the other guys apartment. She called Mara and waited in the hall to talk to her. Max didn't want to have four other people watching her while she talked, or talking in the background.

"Hello?" Mara said as she answered.

"Hi, Mara, it's Max, did you ask Layla, or anyone, to bring Anders and Fenris to your office to meet with you?" Max asked, trying not to sound anxious.

"No, you know that Layla didn't work today. You saw John here working for her when you came for your meeting this morning. Has something happened?" Mara said sounding confused.

"I think we may have a problem. A woman matching Layla's description told Anders and Fenris that you wanted them to meet with you earlier today and now they are missing," Max said finding it harder to keep her nerves out of her voice.

"That is definitely a problem. We need to act on this quickly. I think that it is safe to assume that the blood mages who summoned them here are behind this, and we have found our leak. We need to check the security footage to see if it was Layla or not; I hate to say it may be her but it would explain a lot. Then we need to see if we can determine where they are. Call Caleb and see if you can get him started. I will talk to the Knight Commander and see if we can get some Templars to check Layla's rooms once we determine if it is her," Mara said seriously.

Max agreed and ended the call. She quickly called Caleb and Kyle to get the ball rolling on what they would need to do. Caleb said he would get on checking the security footage and seeing if he could track Layla's cell phone. Neither one of them thought it would be likely that she still had it as she knew they could track it but it was a place to start. Max went back to get Sebastian, she wanted all of them in one place and they all needed to know what was going on.

"I thought you were looking for Blondie not the Choir Boy," Varric said with a grin as Max and Sebastian came into the apartment.

"We have a problem, Anders and Fenris are both missing. We think they were taken by someone associated with the blood mage that summoned you all here," Max said. She filled them in on what was going on so far; then she had an idea. "I need someone who can pick locks to come with me. I wanna go through her desk, she may have something there."

"Oh, I'll go," Isabela volunteered.

"Alright, let's go. The rest of you should stay here, don't leave here with anyone unless you hear from me directly. Please," Max said before leading Isabela upstairs.

She was praying that they would find something, anything, to help get the two men back safely. She pushed down the fear rising in her heart; she had to focus on finding them. She could let her emotions out later.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Anders shifted so he was sitting up straighter against the wall. He had fallen asleep; he had no way of knowing for how long. His wrists were throbbing from the restraints. They had been taken off briefly earlier so they could eat. Anders saw runes carved into them to suppress magic. These people weren't taking any chances it seemed; runes in the cell and on his restraints. Fenris was sitting up as well, they had unbound his feet but his arms were still bound at the wrists and elbows.

When Cole and Layla had left them the first time Anders had tried to see what he could outside of the cell. The walls he could see were all bare, not even as much as a window on any of them. From what he could see this was the only cell they had, which would explain why they had put the two of them in together. The only people they had seen were the ones who had brought them here. They had only been allowed to eat one at a time, so they couldn't try to fight their way out Anders suspected. They had worked out a plan that might work the next time they were brought food, they agreed that they had to try something.

Anders heard a door open and heard voices coming toward them. He saw Fenris tense and glare in the direction of the voices.

"And how are our guests doing this morning?" a familiar voice purred.

It was the same blood mage that had summoned them here. Layla was with him as was a large angry looking man; Cole was nowhere to be seen.

"I would like to issue a complaint about the service, it has been downright hostile. And the accommodations leave a great deal to be desired," Anders said haughtily. Fenris growled.

The man who had spoken laughed, "Allow me to introduce myself and then perhaps we can discuss your accommodations. I am Jace Long. It is unfortunate that it has taken this long for us to have the opportunity for a proper introduction. I had hoped that we could have worked together but we were rudely interrupted when you first arrived here," Jace's face clouded at that, but quickly cleared. "No matter, perhaps all is not lost. I would still very much like to work with you both in particular, if you can be open minded that is. If you can be then perhaps we can do something to improve the accommodations."

"I do not work with blood mages," Fenris growled.

"Except for Merrill," Jace responded with a smirk.

"Only for Hawke," Fenris replied.

"So you work with a blood mage for another mage? Interesting how your convictions change to suit your mood. And what of you Anders? Would you be willing to hear my proposition?" Jace continued.

"Fenris and I don't agree on much but blood magic is evil, I will not be a party to it," Anders said wincing at agreeing with the elf.

"Well that is a shame, no matter; I will get what I want either way. It would have been easier on all of us if you would have cooperated, however," at this he turned to address his companions. "We will start with the mage. I have higher hopes for what we will get out of the elf's blood so I want to use the mage first. Try not to damage him too much."

At this Jace left and the large man who was with him made his way into the cell. Layla remained outside of the cell, clearly not wanting to enter the area where her own magic would also not work. Layla kept her eyes on Fenris while the large man moved towards Anders. Anders could feel Justice distantly trying to surge forward, the runes in his restraints and the walls keeping the spirit in check. The man reached down and pulled Anders up by his arms. Anders made no move to try anything, he knew that it was futile and if he fought they may knock him out and then he would not be able to get an idea of what this building was like. He had escaped the Circle enough times to know that he needed more information to be able to escape this. It was a futile hope for as soon as they were out of sight of the cell Anders felt the large mans hand's go around his throat and soon everything went black.

* * *

><p>"Max you need to stop pacing, you're making Bianca twitchy," Varric said as Max continued the laps she was making around the living room.<p>

Max ignored Varric. Pacing was the only thing she could do right now so she was going to do it. She was anxious and pissed; so much so that sparks of fire kept randomly leaping across her fingertips. She had changed her clothes as well, from her normal jeans and flip flops to black pants and black boots. She had her most powerful staff as well; it was already slung across her back. She would be ready as soon as they knew where to go.

Everyone had once again gathered in the apartment that Varric and Anders shared. Anders and Fenris had been missing for a day and a half and little headway had been made in determining where they were. Caleb was sitting at the dining room table with two different laptops in front of him clicking away. Nothing of consequence had been found in Layla's apartment. Max and Isabela had found a locked ipad in her desk along with a few notes that may or may not have any meaning. Caleb was trying to hack into the ipad. They had gotten nowhere when it came to tracking her phone; she had left it in her apartment. There was nothing in the phones history or messages either, she probably had another one she used to contact the others involved in this.

Max kept trying to rationalize to herself that they would find the two of them, if they didn't the Fenris wouldn't make it back to the Dragon Age and he and Hawke would never have children and she wouldn't exist. It didn't really help though; she couldn't rationalize away her fear that they would do something to Anders. And even rationalizing that they would find Fenris didn't mean she didn't want to get them back as quickly as possible.

"Found anything yet Caleb?" she asked the other mage pausing from her pacing to hover over his shoulder.

"Max, I told you not to...Got it!" Caleb exclaimed as the ipad came to life showing its home screen.

Max quickly grabbed the tablet and scanned the screen. She was looking for anything that may contain any information. She went through the photo albums and saw one that was untitled. She opened that album and flicked through the pictures. They all seemed to be taken in the same place. They were pictures of a room that looked almost like a doctor's office. There was the table that they always have patients sit on, only this one had restraints, and trays with needles and blood bags.

"Fuck! It's him!" Max had come across a picture of Jace. "That's they guy who had me, who summoned them all here."

"Well hopefully Layla didn't turn off the GPS on the ipad and we will be able to get the coordinates of where this picture was taken. They may not be there but it's a place to start," Caleb said.

"Well get on it," Max said as she returned to her pacing.

* * *

><p>Anders was back in the cell, alone now but with the restraints removed. They had taken Fenris; he wasn't sure how long ago. He knew that when he woke up back in the cell Fenris was already gone; and that had been a long time ago. He was sure they had Fenris in the same room he had been in before. He had been tied down to some strange table and they had taken his blood. Jace had said that if he had been willing to cooperate they would have used the needles; instead they made cuts along his arms and let the blood drip into buckets. Jace made sure to make it clear that this way was much more painful.<p>

He couldn't help but remember what Max's arms had looked like when they had taken her. Jace had said while he was bleeding Anders that Max's blood had sparked his curiosity. There was such power in her blood; that was why he was more interested in Fenris. He wondered if the lyrium in Fenris' skin would change the power in his blood, perhaps that was why Max was different. Anders had no interest in telling him that his theory was right, it would only encourage the bastard.

Jace then told Anders what he wanted with him.

"_I'm curious about you as well," Jace had said as he slid the blade across Anders arm._

"_Well there really isn't much to me. I'm actually a simple man. I'm just looking for love, life, and liberty," Anders quipped, trying to take his mind off the blood oozing down his arms._

_Jace laughed, "From what I hear you should be grateful to me for helping you achieve that for yourself. I hear you and Max have become very close. I would be thrilled to have her here. I would love to compare the differences in her blood and Fenris'. If I am right that the power in hers come from the lyrium in his skin then there should be differences in the power in their blood."_

_Anders growled and strained against the restraints at the thought of Max being put through this again. He felt Justice try to surge forward again. The spirit got closer but the restraints here also had runes in them, keeping Justice at a distance._

"_I see by your reaction that the reports I have gotten of the relationship that you and Max have been developing have not been exaggerated," Jace said slickly. He continued in a brighter tone, "But we have gotten off topic; we were discussing why I am curious about you. I am curious if that spirit of yours makes any difference in the power in your blood."_

Anders vaguely remembered him going on about Grey Warden blood, and the power of a fade spirit but he had stopped really listening. He couldn't stop worrying about Max and finding a way to prevent Jace from getting his hands on her. He needed to find a way out, so she wouldn't have to suffer through that. Anders didn't doubt that she was doing everything that she could to find them. He hoped that he could find a way out before she came charging in here.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:Sorry it has been a while since updating, things have been pretty busy! I will try to be better about updating! **


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